John Schaar

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John H(omer) Schaar (born July 7, 1928) is a scholar and political theorist. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He still teaches at least one course per year.

Born in Montoursville, PA, Schaar was raised on a farm, where he lost much of one finger as a child.

Schaar received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles. He taught political theory at the University of California, Berkeley, where his theory colleagues included Sheldon Wolin, Norman Jacobson, Michael Rogin, and Hannah Pitkin. In 1970 he moved to U.C., Santa Cruz. At Berkeley, he was a significant influence on the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s. His most prominent students include Greil Marcus, Margot Adler, the late Wilson Carey McWilliams, Jeff Lustig, Marge Frantz, and the activist and writer, Frank Bardacke. He has also frequently taught at Deep Springs College.

His central political values include community, democracy, authority, and political participation. He believes in decentralization of political and economic power.

He is married to political theorist Hanna Pitkin, and together they reside in the Santa Cruz mountains.

[edit] Publications

  • Loyalty in America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957).
  • Escape from Authority: The Perspectives of Erich Fromm (New York: Basic Books, 1961).
  • The Berkeley Rebellion and Beyond: Essays on Politics & Education in the Technological Society, co-authored with Sheldon S. Wolin (New York: New York Review Book, 1970).
  • Legitimacy in the Modern State (collected essays) (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press, 1981). See especially the title essay and "The Case for Patriotism."

[edit] External links