Steven B. Smith (political scientist)

This article is about Steven B. Smith. For the underground artist, see Steven B. Smith (poet).

Steven B. Smith is the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the ninth master of Branford College (since 1996) at Yale.

A graduate of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the recipient of an M.Phil. from England's Durham University, in 1981 Steven Smith received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He was briefly employed as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin before his 1984 arrival at Yale, where he was granted tenure in 1990. At Yale, he has served in many important positions while focusing on his research. His areas of expertise are the history of political philosophy and the role of statecraft in constitutional government. He is an honorary member of Manuscript Society.

His recent books include Spinoza, Liberalism and Jewish Identity (1997), Spinoza's Book of Life (2003), and his latest Reading Leo Strauss (2006).

He is married and has one son.

Controversies

Steven Smith's latest book Reading Leo Strauss generated controversy and an interesting exchange between himself and Shadia Drury in Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy vol. 35 n.1 p. 62-74 as they both discussed Strauss' stance on liberal democracy.

External links

• Yale > Political Science > Steven Smith
• Branford College
• Academic Earth Political Philosophy Course