Kagan was born in Kuršėnai, Lithuania, on May 1, 1932,[1][2] to a Jewish family. His father, Shmuel, died before Kagan turned two years old, and his mother, Leah (Benjamin), subsequently emigrated to the United States with Kagan and his sister. He grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.[1] He attended Thomas Jefferson High School, where he played football,[1] before becoming the first person in his family to go to college.[2] He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1954, received a master's degree in classics from Brown University in 1955, and a Ph.D. in history from the Ohio State University in 1958.[2][3]
Donald Kagan's political views underwent a significant shift around 1969, moving from liberalism towards neoconservatism. This change occurred following student protests at Cornell University, which led to the establishment of a Black Studies program following the student occupation of Willard Straight Hall. Kagan felt the university administration's response was inadequate, deeply impacting his political outlook. He became one of the original signatories of the 1997 Statement of Principles by the neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century, co-founded by his son Robert.[4][5] In the lead-up to the 2000 presidential elections, Kagan and his other son, Frederick, published While America Sleeps, advocating for increased defense spending.[1]
Known for his prolific research on the Peloponnesian War; Kagan is also famous for his work On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace, a comparative history examining four major conflicts (the Peloponnesian War, World War I, the Second Punic War, and World War II) and one non-conflict (the Cuban Missile Crisis) with the purpose of identifying how and why wars do or do not begin. Remarking in 2015 on the work, Kagan summarized the causes of war by quoting Thucydides: "You know, Thucydides has this great insight. I wish I could get people to pay attention – he has one of his speakers at the beginning of the war say, 'Why do people go to war? Out of fear, honor, and interest.' Well, everybody knows interest, and fear is very credible. Nobody takes honor seriously."[6] Kagan believes honor – better understood as "prestige" – was crucial in beginning World War I, for example.[6]
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded Kagan the National Humanities Medal in 2002, and selected him to deliver the 2005 Jefferson Lecture.[7] Kagan titled his lecture "In Defense of History";[8] he argued that history is of primary importance in the study of the humanities.[9][10] In his The New Yorker review, George Steiner said of Kagan's four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War: "The temptation to acclaim Kagan's four volumes as the foremost work of history produced in North America in this century is vivid."[1]
Until his retirement in 2013, Kagan was Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University.[11] His "The Origins of War" was one of Yale's most popular courses for twenty-five years, and was the basis of a book he published in 1995.[12] Over an even longer timespan he taught "Introduction to Ancient Greek History",[13] and upper level History and Classical Civilization seminars focusing on topics from Thucydides to the Lacedaimonian hegemony.[14][15]
Personal life and family
Kagan married Myrna Dabrusky in 1954. They met while studying at Thomas Jefferson High School together,[1] and remained married for 62 years until her death in 2017.[2] Together, they had two children: Robert and Frederick.[1][2]
