I met Ted Lowi in my senior year at Cornell (1960-61). At the time, he was an Instructor, at the beginning of his distinguished academic career. While I didn’t take a course with him, I did participate in a small seminar he held one evening as part of the Government Department’s Honors program. While this young, tousle-haired scholar seemed to lack the gravity and firm conclusions of his older colleagues, I was impressed by his smile, his enthusiasm and his refreshing inclination to “think out of the box” even if his theory wasn’t wholly convincing.
I also recall participating in a student meeting with former President Harry S. Truman that Ted hosted. In my fashion, I posed a critical question to Truman regarding his policy of non-recognition of Communist China. The former President got a little defensive for a moment, exclaiming, “They kill the girl babies in China,” but Ted seemed pleased with the exchange.
Beyond those two encounters, we did no more than exchange a few hellos on campus. After graduation, I had no contact with Ted as I journeyed from Graduate School to academia to Staff Director of the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Africa.
In 1995, I published a book on Congress’ failure of leadership in foreign policy called A Culture of Deference. As the paperback version was being prepared in 1996, my publisher asked if -- beyond the published reviews -- I could get some blurbs from prominent academics. Among others, I thought of Ted because his seminal 1979 book, The End of Liberalism, was, like mine, a critique of congressional abdication. After some hesitation, I wrote him, mentioning our slight connection and similar views, in the hope that he might possibly agree to read the book and, if he liked it, offer a comment.
The next thing I knew I received a phone call from Ted at Cornell. After we chatted a few seconds, he said, “Were you the redhead?” I was and still am dumbstruck that he had a visual memory of me from our brief acquaintance 35 years earlier. Ted was very gracious. In due course my publisher received his favorable verdict, which was excerpted on the paperback cover. Let me quote a passage from his full statement which contains the same energy I detected in the young Instructor:
The Cold War is over. Down with deference. Micromanagement with occasional rebellion can never be more than a poor excuse for ineffectiveness. Up with responsible representative government. Congress: Take a Recess. Read this book.
Stephen R. Weissman
College of Arts and Sciences
Cornell Class of 1961
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