Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:06:30.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why Would a Political Scientist Write a Biography?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 December 2016

Bartholomew Sparrow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Why would a political scientist write a biography of a U.S. national security advisor? Biography focuses on a single individual and has no guidelines on where or how to collect evidence or on how to organize that evidence. Nonetheless, a biography of General Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, allowed me to provide a broad overview of forty years of U.S. foreign policy history, to conduct an in-depth study of the personnel and organization involved in the national security decision-making, and to narrate the life of an extremely influential and interesting public figure. Biography fulfills many of political science’s disciplinary objectives, in fact: it speaks to important issues of political science, it offers thick description and facilitates the drawing of causal inferences, it addresses agency and structure, it is falsifiable, and it is able to communicate with a larger public.

Type
Reflections
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , December 2016 , pp. 1101 - 1111
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arklay, Tracey. 2006. “Political Biography: Its Contribution to Political Science.” In Australian Political Lives: Chronicling Political Careers and Administrative Histories, ed. Arklay, T., Nethercote, J., and Wanna, J.. Canberra: ANU E Press.Google Scholar
Banner, Lois W. 2009. “Biography as History.” AHR Roundtable. American Historical Review 114(3): 579–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beth, Loren P. 1992. John Marshall Harlan: The Last Whig Justice. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Bill, James. 1997. George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Brett, Judith. 1997. “The Tasks of Political Biography.” In Political Lives, ed. Brett, Judith, St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Brady, Henry and Collier, David, eds. 2004. Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Brady, Henry, Collier, David, and Seawright, Jason. 2004. “Refocusing the Discussion of Methodology.” In Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, ed. Brady, Henry and Collier, David. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Brzezinski, Zbigniew and Scowcroft, Brent; moderated by Ignatius, David. 2008. America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Burke, John P. 2009. Honest Broker? The National Security Advisor and Presidential Decision Making. College Station: Texas A&M Press.Google Scholar
Burns, James McGregor and Dunn, Susan. 2004. George Washington. New York: Times Books/Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Bush, George and Scowcroft, Brent. 1998. A World Transformed: The Collapse of the Soviet Empire, The Unification of Germany, Tiananmen Square, The Gulf War. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Carpenter, Daniel P. 2001. The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Reputations, Networks, and Policy Innovation in Executive Agencies, 1862–1928. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Carpenter, Daniel P. and Moore, Colin D.. 2007. “Robust Action and the Strategic Use of Ambiguity in a Bureaucratic Cohort: FDA Officers and the Evolution of New Drug Regulations, 1950–70.” In, Formative Acts: American Politics in the Making, ed. Skowronek, Stephen and Glassman, Matthew. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Chace, James. 1998. Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Collier, David, Brady, Henry E., and Seawright, Jason. 2004. “Critiques, Responses, and Trade-offs.” In, Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, ed. Brady, Henry E. and Collier, David. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Coram, Robert. 2002. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Daalder, Ivo and Destler, I. M.. 2009. In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served—From JFK to Bush. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Dubofsky, Melvin and Van Tine, Warren. 1977. John L. Lewis. New York: Quadrangle Books.Google Scholar
Edinger, Lewis J. 1964. “Political Science and Political Biography: Reflections on the Study of Leadership (I).” Journal of Politics 26(2): 423–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ely, James W. Jr. 1999. The Chief Justiceship of Melville W. Fuller, 1888–1910. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Gaddis, John Lewis. 2011. George F. Kennan: An American Life. New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Gates, Robert. 1996. From the Shadows. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Gerring, John and Seawright, Jason 2006. “Techniques for Choosing Cases.” In Case Study Research: Principles and Practices, ed. Gerring, John. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerring, John. 2001. Social Science Methodology: A Critical Framework. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerring, John. 2006. “Single-Outcome Studies: A Methodological Primer.” International Sociology 21(5): 707–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Jeffrey. 2005. “Breaking Ranks: What Turned Brent Scowcroft against the Bush Administration.” New Yorker, October 31.Google Scholar
Highsaw, Robert B. 1981. Edward Douglass White: Defender of the Conservative Faith. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Hoopes, Townsend and Brinkley, Douglas. 1992. Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Keohane, Robert O., and Verba, Sidney. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inferences in Qualitative Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasswell, Harold D. 1986 [1930]. Psychopathology and Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lebow, David. 2015. “Caro’s Lives: Comparative Biography as Political Theory.” Review of Politics 77(1): 99–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 2014. “What Is Political Science For?” 2013 Presidential Address to the American Political Science Association. Perspectives on Politics 12(2): 8–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCullough, David G. 1992. Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 1988. Liddell Hart and the Weight of History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mettler, Suzanne. 2002. “Bringing the State Back in to Civic Engagement: Policy Feedback Effects of the G.I. Bill for World War II Veterans,” American Political Science Review 96(2): 351–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orren, Karen and Skowronek, Stephen 1994. “Beyond the Iconography of Order: Notes for a ‘New Institutionalism.’” In The Dynamics of American Politics, ed. Dodd, Lawrence C. and Jillson, Calvin, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Orren, Karen and Skowronek, Stephen. 2004. The Search for American Political Development. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oshinsky, David M. 2005. A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Padgett, John F. and Ansell, Christopher. 1993. “Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400–1434.” American Journal of Sociology 98(6): 1259–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padgett, John F. and Powell, Walter. 2012. The Emergence of Organization and Markets. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Perlstein, Rick. 2008. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 1993. “When Effect Becomes Cause: Policy Feedback and Political Change.” World Politics 45(4): 595–628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, Paul and Skocpol, Theda. 2002. “Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Political Perspective.” In Political Science: The State of the Discipline, ed. Katznelson, Ira and Milner, Helen V.. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.; American Political Science Association: Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Pimlott, Ben. 1990. “The Future of Political Biography.” Political Quarterly 61(2): S214–S223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pimlott, Ben. 1999. “Is Contemporary Biography History?” Political Quarterly 70(1): 31–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prados, John. 1991. Keepers of the Keys: A History of the National Security Council from Truman to Bush. New York: Morrow.Google Scholar
Przybyszewski, Linda. 1999. The Republic According to John Marshall Harlan. Studies in Legal History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert. 2003. “The Public Role of Political Science.” 2002 Presidential Address to the American Political Science Association. Perspectives on Politics 1(2): 249–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remnick, David. 2010. The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Renshon, Stanley W. 1996. High Hopes: The Clinton Presidency and the Politics of Ambition. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Ricci, David M. 1984. The Tragedy of Political Science: Politics, Scholarship, and Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rodman, Peter W. 2009. Presidential Command: Power, Leadership, and the Making of Foreign Policy from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Rothkopf, David. 2005. Running the World. New York: Public Affairs Press.Google Scholar
Schmitz, David F. 2011. Brent Scowcroft: Internationalism and Post-Vietnam Foreign Policy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine and Yanow, Dvora. 2011. Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scowcroft, Brent. 1969. “Deterrence and Strategic Superiority.” Orbis 13(2): 435–54.Google Scholar
Scowcroft, Brent. 1978. “I. Soviet Dynamics: Rapporteur’s Summary,” Soviet Dynamics—Political Economic Military (World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, 1978).Google Scholar
Scowcroft, Brent. 1979. “American Attitudes Toward Foreign Policy.” Naval War College Review 32(2): 11–19.Google Scholar
Seawright, Jason and Gerring, John. 2008. “Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research.” Political Research Quarterly 61(2): 294–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skowronek, Stephen. 1993. The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to George Bush. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Skowronek, Stephen. 1997. The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton. Rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Skowronek, Stephen and Orren, Karen. 2004. The Search for American Political Development. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Rogers. 2002. “Should We Make Political Science More of a Science or More about Politics?” PS: Political Science and Politics 35(2): 199–201.Google Scholar
Soss, Joe and Schram, Sanford F.. 2007. “A Public Transformed? Welfare Reform as Policy Feedback.” American Political Science Review 101(1): 111–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sparrow, Bartholomew H. 1996. From the Outside In: World War II and the American State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sparrow, Bartholomew H. 2006. The Insular Cases and the Emergence of American Empire. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Sparrow, Bartholomew H. 2013. “What Biography Offers Political Science.” PEP Report. Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, pp. 3–4, 19–23.Google Scholar
Sparrow, Bartholomew H. 2015. The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft and the Call of National Security. New York: Public Affairs Press.Google Scholar
Steel, Ronald. 1980. Walter Lippmann and the American Century. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Tushnet, Mark. 1994. Making Civil Rights Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Van Evera, Stephen. 1997. Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Wear, Rea. 2006. “Writing Political Biography.” In Australian Political Lives: Chronicling Political Careers and Administrative Histories, ed. Arklay, T., Nethercote, J., and Wanna, J.. Canberra: ANU E-Press.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth. 1956. Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Yarbough, Tinsley E. 1995. Judicial Enigma: The First Justice Harlan. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zelizer, Julian. 2000. Taxing America: Wilbur Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945–1975. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar