Paul Hollander, a member of the advisory board of the National Association of Scholars, passed away on April 9. Professor Hollander was a long-time contributor to Academic Questions, to our website, and to the general operations of NAS.
We are extraordinarily fortunate to have had Paul’s support. He was a model for how a publicly committed scholar should behave. Paul was a fierce critic of the American left and an equally fierce defender of Western civilization, who always expressed himself with the manners of a gentleman.
Paul was born in Budapest in 1932 and lived there until his escape from the country during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He received his doctorate in Sociology from Princeton University and taught at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts. His many books included studies of the “misadventures” of intellectuals in the twentieth century, communism, and the psychology of belief. Paul’s professional studies were deeply influenced by his youth in Budapest, where he acquired first-hand knowledge of the horrors of totalitarian rule. His early experiences made him an especially doughty opponent of American enthusiasts for revolution.
His books include Understanding Anti-Americanism: Critiques at Home and Abroad, The End of Commitment: Intellectuals, Revolutionaries, and Political Morality in the Twentieth Century, and most recently From Benito Mussolini to Hugo Chavez: Intellectuals and a Century of Political Hero Worship.
Paul loved nature and photography, and the Hollander family requests that donations be made to wildlife or environmental organization in the name of Professor Paul Hollander.
Photo: Atlas Network
