Hans J. Morgenthau (1904-1979) was an American political scientist who taught at the University of Chicago and at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. His classic text, Politics Among Nations, was the leading work for students of international politics for over a quarter century.

Hans J. Morgenthau was born on February 17, 1904, in Coburg, a small town in central Germany which is now part of northern Bavaria. His father was a doctor who discouraged his son from attending the University of Berlin, saying: "You are out of your mind. You'll never get in. Go to a lesser school instead." His father's attitude created in the son an inferiority complex, a fear of being rejected, and an undisguised shyness that persisted throughout his life. If his father was tyrannical and authoritarian, his mother was warm and supportive. He remembered being ridiculed when, having graduated first in...