This weekend’s Wall Street Journal has a book review by Joseph Epstein of a book about Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (by Richard Aldous). Epstein remarks on what a privileged life he led:
[The author] frequently notes the services that a Harvard connection afforded Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. His first advantage was being the son of Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr., who was on the Harvard history faculty.... Harvard, as they say, was there for Arthur Schlesinger Jr. through the first 50 years of his life. He was at Harvard as an undergraduate; after graduation he became first a Harvard Henry Fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, then a member of Harvard’s Society of Fellows, which allowed students thought to be promising the freedom to pursue their own intellectual projects without the burdens of teaching. During the better part of World War II, through his Harvard connections, he found interesting work in the Office of War Information; and when the war was over, there was Harvard, arms flung open, offering him a job in its history department.
To become a professor at Harvard, it certainly helps to have a father who is already a professor there. Leftists whine a lot about white privilege (which given the existence of affirmative action, is exaggerated), but they never complain about the kind of privilege that Schlesinger had.
White privilege is a myth, as West Virginia coal miners, among others, know. Elitist "East" coast liberal privilege is not a myth ("East" because it really isn't restricted geographically) is not a myth, as Kennedys, Schlesingers, Clintons, Bushes, et al. well know.
Posted by: Charles N.Steele | 10/24/2017 at 06:33 PM
At the time that Schlesinger entered Harvard, you may not have needed the quote marks around it.
Posted by: John Pepple | 10/24/2017 at 06:55 PM