Arnold A. Rogow *53
Arnold A. Rogow, political scientist and author of psychoanalytic biographies, died Feb. 14, 2006, in Manhattan from complications of a stroke. He was 81.
Perhaps best known for his book, A Fatal Friendship: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, Rogow married his psychoanalytic knowledge as a practicing psychotherapist to his academic concerns as a political scientist and biographer. Hamilton, he argued, was a manic depressive whose obsessive hatred of Burr led to the duel — and the decision not to fire — which ended Hamilton’s life. Rogow’s Freudian approach to politics and the past earned him an international reputation.
Born in Harrisburg, Pa., Rogow lost both his parents in early childhood. His college studies were interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Battle of the Bulge and won numerous medals. He had the distinction as well of befriending Gertrude Stein while in Paris and giving her his combat infantry badge.
After the war, Rogow earned a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton and taught for many years at the University of Iowa, Stanford, and City College of New York, from which he retired as professor emeritus.
Rogow is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren, and his companion, Martha Moraes.
Paw in print
July 2026
Architect Tod Williams ’65 *67 reflects on the Obama Presidential Center; rain and revelry at Reunions.
1 Response
Comments
Judith Van Allen
1 Week AgoA Professor Who Set an Example
I was a student of Rogow’s at Stanford from 1960 to 1962 when I graduated. He was an inspiration: His passion for politics, his radical critiques of U.S. politics, his enthusiastic support and encouragement for us few women in political science, his two women TAs, and his strong encouragement for me to go to UC Berkeley and study with Sheldon Wolin all are still vibrant memories. I was sorry to lose touch with him when he went to New York, so I couldn’t tell him about my later adventures in the Free Speech Movement, in Georgia as a civil rights worker, and my continued political activism plus my later focus and writing on the dire effects of colonialism on African women. I may never have done any of those things without his example of political commitment blended with intellectual rigor and a wry sense of humor.