Archivist’s Pick: Not One of the President’s Men

Here’s this month’s piece from the Drucker Institute’s archivist, Bridget Lawlor. By drawing lessons from the vast treasure trove of papers and other objects that are collected in Peter Drucker’s archives, Bridget is giving new life to decades-old material.

In this memo from 1960, Robert Finch, Richard Nixon’s campaign manager, informed the presidential candidate that Peter Drucker was a “former left-winger” now interested in helping “the cause.”

But, as we’ve noted previously on the Drucker Exchange, it was difficult to stick any kind of political label on Drucker. And he most certainly wasn’t interested in advancing any particular partisan cause.

“I have always, as a matter of principle, been available to the Government of the United States,” Drucker explained just a year before Finch wrote to Nixon. “But I have long since decided, also as a matter of principle, that my only connection with a political party–if any–would be as a candidate (and that’s most unlikely to happen, I’d say).”