HENRY PAOLUCCI
(From: Henry Polucci, Selected Writings on Literature and the Arts;
Science and Astronomy; Law, Government, and Political Philosophy,
edited by Anne Paolucci 1999)
At the time of his death, on January 1, 1999, Henry Paolucci had been retired for eight years from St. John's University and held the title of Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics. He had also continued to serve, until his death, as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party of New York State.
He graduated from the City College of New York in 1942 with a BS degree and promptly joined the United States Air Force as a Navigator. He flew many missions over Africa and Italy and, toward the end of the war in Europe, was placed in charge of 10,000 German prisoners of war. In that capacity, he remained in Italy for over a year. Immediately after his discharge, he resumed his education and received a Master's Degree and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. In 1948 he was chosen Eleanora DuseTraveling Fellow in Columbia University and spent a year studying in Florence, Italy. In 1951 he returned to Italy as a Fulnbright Scholar at the University of Rome.
His wide range of intellectual interests was reflected in the variety of subjects that he taught, including Greek and Roman history at Iona College, Brookyln College and the City College; a graduate course in Dante and medeival Culture at Columbia; and from 1968 until his retirement, graduate and undergraduate courses in foreign policy, political theory, St Augustine, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hegel, astronomy and modern science at St. John's University.
A frequent contributor to the Op Ed pages of the New York Times, a and magazines like National Review and Il Borghese (Rome), Professor Paolucci wrote numerous articles for the Columbus Quincentenary and helped prepare three volumes of Review of National Literatures from materials drawn from the massive eight-volume work of Justin Winsor, the great historian of early America.
Professor Paolucci translated Cesare Beccaria's On Crime and Punishments, Machiavelli's Mandragola (in 34th printing) , portions of Hegel's massive work on the Philosophy of Fine Arts, in a volume titled Hegel and the Arts, and edited Maitland's Justice and Police, as well as a notable collection of The Political Writings of St. Augustine and, first of its kind, selections drawn from Hegel's entire opus into a single volume, Hegel on Tragedy. His books on political affairs and foeign policy analysis include the classic War, Peace and the Presidency (1968), A Brief History of Political Yhought and Statecraft (1979), Kissinger's War (1980), Zionism, the Superpowers, and the P.L.O. (1964) and Iran, Israel and the United States (1991).
In 1964, he was urged by William F. Buckley to accept the New York State Conservative Party nomination for the U.S. Senate, running against Kenneth Keating and Robert F. Kennedy. His stimulating campaign drew considerable interest, and he was written up in the New York Times as the "Scholarly Candidate". In 1995, the Party honored him with its prestigious Kieran O'Doherty Award.
Founder and President of the Walter Bagehot Research Council on National Sovereignty (a non-profit educational foundation), Professor Paolucci was for many years the chief editor of its newsletter, State of the Nation, and organizer of the Council's annaul meeting at the American Political Science Association. He contributed also to the international series Review of National Literatures and its companion series, CNL/World Report.
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As Henry's niece, (and the Webmaster of this site), let me add my own tribute, short as it may be. Henry -- even as a child, the mere sound of his voice would alert me to the promise of witty conversation, with intellectualizing that I as a child could bask and grow in. I was never disappointed and always enriched by his presence. He and Anne were never far from us -- I saw them often as a child and even when I moved out of state I would often come back to visit them. It was time very well spent.
Henry was a statesman, a raconteur supreme, erudite, handsome with the bearing of Ancient Roman Nobility, and never too dignified to reply to life with a bon mot, often a humorous one at that. I was enthralled by his intellectual banter, and was thrilled the day I realized that my childish banter with him was now supplanted with intellectual, political and philosophical subjects of conversation.
Henry Paolucci.......... Aristotle, Plato and Socrates flipped a coin (or played Rocks and Scissors?) to see who would be the first to debate him when he slipped into the next dimension on January 1, 1999.
