Historical Failures and Political Aspirations: Judith Shklar Places Hegel in 1970s America

At the time for the U.S. Bicentennial, the American political theorist Judith Shklar turned to the political thought of Hegel. By focusing on how she came to conceptualize The Phenomenology of Mind (1807) as a history of failures, this article argues that she adopted Hegel’s ideas by adapting them in order to reflect on 1970s America. Moreover, it demonstrates how she activated his ideas to develop an approach to two centuries of American history that differed from the two historical accounts prevalent at the time. The article concludes that Shklar, by drawing on the idea of a history of failures found in Hegel’s thought, presented a conception of American democracy as based on failures that was far from pessimistic.