"Public Authority and the State in the Western Tradition:
A Thousand Years of Growth, A.D. 976 - 1976”

by Carroll Quigley Ph.D.

The Oscar Iden Lectures

The Oscar Iden Lectures are delivered annually at the School of Foreign Service. Their purpose is to illuminate trends and issues in world affairs which are of special consequence to the United States.


The Iden Lectures were established in 1976 through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Iden, SFS ‘24. Their contribution of an endowment fund to the School provides a permanent basis for funding the lectures. The Idens' generosity to the School has been continuous over the years and it is fitting that their abiding educational interest should take the form of a distinguished lecture series in their name.


In October, 1976, Professor Carroll Quigley delivered the first series of Oscar Iden Lectures entitled "Public Authority and the State in the Western Tradition: A Thousand Years of Growth, 976-1976." The lecture series was an occasion to re-gather around Professor Quigley who had retired from the School of Foreign Service the previous spring after forty years of teaching. The audience was composed chiefly of Professor Quigley's colleagues and former students who were grateful for the chance to be informed once again by his brilliance and eloquence.


About a month after the final lecture, Professor Quigley died suddenly. The lectures which he had intended to prepare for publication had only been partially edited by him. In order to bring his final lectures and tour d'horizon to print, we asked his former teaching assistant, Helen Veit, to prepare them. She has assembled the manuscript which is published here, taking care to be faithful to both Professor Quigley's style and to the nature of the occasion itself. Accordingly, the printed lectures are as true and direct a translation and reflection of the lecture series as it has been possible to produce.


This publication is intended primarily for distribution to Professor Quigley's friends and former students. It is being sent with particular appreciation to those who have contributed to the Carroll Quigley Fund which is being established to create an endowed professorship at the School of Foreign Service. To facilitate additional contributions to this Fund, a pledge card is enclosed.




Dean Peter F. Krogh
School of Foreign Service

Next Section I: “The State of Communities,” A.D. 976 - 1576