That year, he emigrated to the United States because he was unhappy with the rise of Nazism. Jaeger expressed his veiled disapproval in 1937 with Humanistische Reden und Vorträge (Humanist Speeches and Lectures), and his book Demosthenes (1938) based on his Sather lecture from 1934. Jaeger's messages were fully understood in German university circles, with Nazi academics sharply attacking him.
Jaeger's position concerning the history of the interpretation of Plato and Aristotle has been summarized by Harold Cherniss of Johns Hopkins University. In general, the history of the interpretation of Plato and Aristotle has largely followed the outline of those who subscribe to the position that (a) Aristotle was sympathetic to the reception of Plato's early dialogues and writings, that (b) Aristotle was sympathetic to the reception of Plato's later dialogues and writings, and (c) various combinations and variations of these two positions. Cherniss' reading of Jaeger states, "Werner Jaeger, in whose eyes Plato's philosophy was the 'matter' out of which the newer and higher form of Aristotle's thought proceeded by a gradual but steady and undeviating development (Aristoteles, p. 11), pronounced the 'old controversy,' [which was] whether or not Aristotle understood Plato, to be 'absolut verständnislos.' (absolutely uncomprehending [of Aristotle]). Yet this did not prevent Dieter Leisegang from reasserting that Aristotle's own pattern of thinking was incompatible with a proper understanding of Plato."[3]
Works
Emendationum Aristotelearum specimen (1911)
Studien zur Enstehungsgeschichte der Metaphysik des Aristoteles (1911)
Nemesios von Emesa. Quellenforschung zum Neuplatonismus und seinen Anfaengen bei Poseidonios (1914)
Aristoteles: Grundlegung einer Geschichte seiner Entwicklung (1923; English trans. by Richard Robinson (1902-1996) as Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of His Development, 1934)
Platons Stellung im Aufbau der griechischen Bildung (1928)
Paideia; die Formung des griechischen Menschen, 3 vols. (German, 1933–1947; trans. by Gilbert Highet as Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, 1939–1944)
Humanistische Reden und Vorträge (1937)
Demosthenes (Sather Classical Lecture), 1934, 1938 trans. by Edward Schouten Robinson; German edition 1939)
Humanism and Theology, (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1943)