ABSTRACT
An essay evaluating Hans J. Morgenthau as historian might appear extraordinary. Morgenthau was a political scientist and never claimed to be anything else. Morgenthau saw clearly that the primary dilemma that confronts students of human society is that of distinguishing the specific from the general and dealing meaningfully with both. Every event is in some measure a unique experience, occurring once and never again. Still the United States had not always held such illusions. Indeed, Morgenthau praised the Federalist leadership of the 1790s for accepting the reality of international politics as an unending struggle for power among nations. Germany’s defeat, Morgenthau argued, answered a clear, historic American interest in the restoration of the historic European balance of power.
