"FOR MORGENTHAU, POLITICS IS ABOUT POWER… LIKE THUCYDIDES, HE BELIEVED THAT POWER IS MOST EFFECTIVE WHEN MASKED": MAJOR PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION FIRST EDITION OF MORGENTHAU'S FIRST BOOK, SCIENTIFIC MAN VS. POWER POLITICS, 1946, INSCRIBED BY HIM TO HIS PREEMINENT COLLEAGUE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW, PHILIP JESSUP

MORGENTHAU, Hans J. Scientific Man vs. Power Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (1946). Octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of the pathbreaking first book by this signal figure in American international politics, an exceptional presentation/association copy that brings together two of the century's greatest minds at a time of global peril with Morgenthau's inscription to the pivotal American diplomat: "Mr. Philip C. Jessup with best regards. Hans. J. Morgenthau."

"Hans Morgenthau is among the most influential of American scholars in the field of international relations" (Background VII:4, 221). This singular presentation/association copy is inscribed by him to his colleague Philip C. Jessup, a leading "American authority on international law who was credited with a key role in ending the Soviet blockade of West Berlin" (New York Times). To Harvard's Stanley Hoffman, Morgenthau importantly "provided both an explanation and a road map" for international policy (Janus and Minerva, 76). Born in Germany, Morgenthau fled Europe for America in 1937. "His first book, Scientific Man vs Power Politics (1946), represents his most systematic exposition of a realist philosophy and it constitutes an incisive critique of what he called 'rational liberalism.' In contrast to what he calls the dominant liberal belief in progress," Morgenthau highlights the "'will-to-power' as the defining characteristic of politics" (Griffiths, Fifty Key Thinkers, 37).

"For Morgenthau, politics is about power…like Thucydides, he believed that power is most effective when masked" (Lebow, Tragic Vision, 232). Scientific Man also reflects "much of Niebuhr's teaching… Morgenthau understood politics as a realm where the ideal confronts the real… [where] often politics was only a choice between greater and lesser evils" (Stone, Prophetic Realism, 30). Toward the end of his life Morgenthau surprised many with his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War. "He had earlier been considered a hard-liner in foreign and defense policy, but he opposed U.S. policy in Vietnam on the basis of a principle set forth in 1948… never put yourself in a position from which you cannot retreat without loss of face and from which you cannot advance without undue risk" (ANB). The recipient Philip Jessup notably served as America's representative to the U.N., and as the U.S. Ambassador at Large. He was a leading member of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and was the Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at Columbia. In addition, Jessup authored influential works such as A Modern Law of Justice (1948) which the Supreme Court's Robert Jackson praised as a core work capable of "reshaping the law of nations more nearly to accord with our aspiration for international justice under law" (New York Times).

Book fine; light edge-wear, toning as often to spine of bright dust jacket. A near-fine presentation copy with an important association.