Michael Zuckert was more a student of Ted Lowi’s than I. I did not take any courses from Lowi when I was an undergraduate at Cornell studying international relations and comparative politics, although I did audit at least one of Lowi’s graduate classes at the University of Chicago in preparing to take a comprehensive examination.
Both Michael and I remember and have often repeated two of Lowi’s maxims:
About dissertations: “Don’t get it right; get it ‘writ’.”
And about future publishing: “If it’s worth thinking, it’s worth saying; if it’s worth saying, it’s worth writing; if it’s worth writing, it’s worth publishing; and if it is worth publishing once, it is worth publishing again and again.”
At the time I thought that Lowi had encapsulated the corruption of the profession. However, having become a professor at a “R-1” university, I have found myself repeating these humorously delivered, but sage pieces of practical advice to many graduate students -- attributing them always to Theodore J. Lowi. (I am a scholar and give credit where it is due.)
Ted Lowi was unfailingly kind and generous to younger colleagues. At conventions he always greeted you with a big smile, handshake or hug. Michael and I enjoyed hosting him as a visiting professor of American studies at Carleton College; and he brought us to teach at Cornell one summer. As to his lasting influence, I can only repeat the statement Stephen Skowronek made to me after I participated in a roundtable on his book, The Policy State, at the last APSA: “I, too, was a student of Lowi.”
Thank you for honoring Lowi by organizing this event [“Theodore J. Lowi: Celebrating a Half Century at Cornell,” Saturday, April 21, 2018, Anabel Taylor Hall, Cornell].
Catherine Zuckert
Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor, Emerita
University of Notre Dame
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