Spring Break
Things I've Learned, with Poli Sci Professor Benjamin Ginsberg
Issue date: 10/9/08
N-L: So it was completely by chance?
BG: I might easily have gone to the law school. But once I started [graduate school], I really enjoyed it. It was an intellectual challenge, and in particular there were professors from whom I learned an enormous amount.
It turns out I had been completely mistaken about what people did in different careers. It turns out that hardly any lawyers set foot in a courtroom and talk; They usually sit in their offices or the law library staring at computer screens, whereas the professors, they have to stand up and talk. I learned how to do that.
N-L: You've had a very successful career as a professor, and you must certainly have some very interesting experiences to share. Who would you say is the most interesting person you've ever met?
BG: Oh, I've met a lot of really interesting people as a professor; some of them faculty, some of them students, some of them alumni.
One really interesting person that I met was a man named Harold Seidman whom I met when I first came to Hopkins.
One of the reasons why I left Cornell to come to Hopkins was because the then-dean of Hopkins, Lloyd Armstrong, and the then-president, William Richardson, wanted to do more in Washington, and I was very interested in involving myself in Washington activities. It was the place to be.
When I arrived at the Hopkins office space in Washington, I was sitting there and in came someone I had heard of but never met.
His name was Harold Seidman and he was then in his 70s. He was the assistant director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and had been a well-known person in Washington for years.
In Washington there are a number of people in the bureaucracy who sort of know everything. You know, the politicians are up there blathering. They don't know anything, but there are a small number of long-time civil servants who run the place and Harold was one of those, so I used to spend hours listening to him tell his stories.
BG: I might easily have gone to the law school. But once I started [graduate school], I really enjoyed it. It was an intellectual challenge, and in particular there were professors from whom I learned an enormous amount.
It turns out I had been completely mistaken about what people did in different careers. It turns out that hardly any lawyers set foot in a courtroom and talk; They usually sit in their offices or the law library staring at computer screens, whereas the professors, they have to stand up and talk. I learned how to do that.
N-L: You've had a very successful career as a professor, and you must certainly have some very interesting experiences to share. Who would you say is the most interesting person you've ever met?
BG: Oh, I've met a lot of really interesting people as a professor; some of them faculty, some of them students, some of them alumni.
One really interesting person that I met was a man named Harold Seidman whom I met when I first came to Hopkins.
One of the reasons why I left Cornell to come to Hopkins was because the then-dean of Hopkins, Lloyd Armstrong, and the then-president, William Richardson, wanted to do more in Washington, and I was very interested in involving myself in Washington activities. It was the place to be.
When I arrived at the Hopkins office space in Washington, I was sitting there and in came someone I had heard of but never met.
His name was Harold Seidman and he was then in his 70s. He was the assistant director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and had been a well-known person in Washington for years.
In Washington there are a number of people in the bureaucracy who sort of know everything. You know, the politicians are up there blathering. They don't know anything, but there are a small number of long-time civil servants who run the place and Harold was one of those, so I used to spend hours listening to him tell his stories.
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