Collection F0594 - Arnold A. Rogow collection

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Arnold A. Rogow collection

General material designation

  • Textual record

Parallel title

Other title information

Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

Level of description

Collection

Reference code

F0594

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • [after 1990?] (Custody)
    Custodian
    Seliger, Yael
  • 1933-1990 (Creation)
    Creator
    Rogow, Arnold A., 1924-2006

Physical description area

Physical description

0.03 metres of textual material
11 photographic prints : b&w ; 6 x 8.6 cm
2 passports
2 badges : metal
10 pieces of scrip
1 pin : metal

Title proper of publisher's series

Parallel titles of publisher's series

Other title information of publisher's series

Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

Numbering within publisher's series

Note on publisher's series

Archival description area

Name of creator

(1924-2006)

Biographical history

Arnold A. Rogow (1924-2006) was a political scientist, author, and psychotherapist. His main area of research was psychological explanations for politics, especially the decision-making of leaders, notably James Forrestal and Alexander Hamilton.

Rogow taught at the University of Iowa and Stanford University before becoming a professor of political science at the City College of New York (part of CUNY) in 1966, where he remained for the rest of his career. Soon after coming to New York, Rogow studied at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and became a practicing psychotherapist in addition to his academic responsibilities. Rogow became a leading figure in the study of the psychodymanics of political behavior and was instrumental in establishing it as a cross-field interdisciplinary concentration at CUNY. He also served as the associate editor of the Journal of Conflict Resolution from 1956 to 1963 and was a member of the original editorial committee of Comparative Politics.

Rogow was a pioneer and prolific writer in the field of psychiatry and politics, and wrote or edited over a dozen books, as well as numerous articles, during his career utilizing his psychoanalytic expertise. His major works include James Forrestal: A Study of Personality, Politics, and Policy (1963), Power, Corruption and Rectitude with Harold D. Laswell (1963), The Psychiatrists (1970), The Dying of the Light: A Searching Look at America Today (1975), Thomas Hobbes: Radical in the Service of Reaction (1986), and A Fatal Friendship: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (1998). His book on James Forrestal, the first Secretary of Defense and the nation's highest-ranking individual to later commit suicide, was Rogow's first major work to utilize psychology to examine a political figure. Rogow relied on both the archival record and interviews or correspondence with over fifty individuals who knew Forrestal in various capacities, including some of the psychiatrists involved in treating his illness, to identify the factors which led Forrestal to commit suicide in 1949.

Arnold Austin Rogow was born on August 10, 1924 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He earned his B.A. in political science from the University of Wisconsin in 1947 after interrupting his undergraduate education to serve in the Army as an infantryman during World War II. Rogow earned his Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University in 1953, where he wrote his dissertation on "The Labor Government and British Industry, 1945-1951." He married Patricia Evans and they had three children: Jennifer, Sarah, and Jeanne. Rogow died on February 14, 2006 at the age of 81.

Custodial history

Material acquired by and gifted to political scientist and author Arnold A. Rogow and then given to Yael Gordon (nee Seliger), a student of his who attended a course he taught on Psychology, Psychiatry and Politics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1972-1973.

Scope and content

Collection consists of a binder of sleeved material labelled "Holocaust" created by Arnold A. Rogow and inscribed to Yael Seliger with a Biblical quote (Joel 1:3). Contains Holocaust-related documentation and artifacts and includes a chronology of the Holocaust, maps showing locations of the camps, a Nazi Party pin, labels for the use of Jewish doctors in Germany indicating that their practice was restricted to Jews, camp money from Lodz Ghetto, Theresienstadt and Westerbork, propaganda currency, yellow Stars of David from Holland, France and Germany, documents including letters from inmates at Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and Dachau, ration coupons issued to Jews in Munich, two metal badges worn by members of the Sonderkommando (one from Dachau, one from Belsen) who deal with the dead from the gas chambers, two German passports belonging to Jews who managed to emigrate to the U.S., 3 Austrian propaganda anti-Jewish postcards, 11 photographs of which ten were taken in Buchenwald in 1945.

Items are accompanied by contextualizing typed statements by Rogow, often noting the date that the item was given to Rogow, and the broader historical context of the item.

Includes photographs taken by Rogow as an 18 year old American soldier when he helped liberate Buchenwald.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Arrangement

Language of material

  • Austrian German
  • Dutch
  • English
  • German
  • Polish

Script of material

    Location of originals

    Availability of other formats

    Restrictions on access

    Access to this collection is restricted, and requires completion of a Research Agreement for Non-University Archives. Consult the University Archivist for additional information in this regard.

    Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

    Finding aids

    Associated materials

    Related materials

    Accruals

    General note

    Content warning: File contains racist and antisemitic propaganda. File contains photographic images of victims of genocide.

    Alternative identifier(s)

    Standard number

    Standard number

    Access points

    Subject access points

    Place access points

    Name access points

    Genre access points

    Control area

    Status

    Draft

    Level of detail

    Partial

    Dates of creation, revision and deletion

    2025/04/09. Creation. A.St.Onge based on documentation prepared by Suzanne Dubeau.

    Language of description

      Sources

      Accession area