Samuel P. Huntington Dies at Age 81

Jon Chase/Harvard News Office

Samuel P. Huntington

Political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, Ph.D. ’51, the Weatherhead University Professor emeritus, died December 24, at age 81, on Martha’s Vineyard. He retired from teaching in 2007, after 58 years of service at Harvard, according to the official University news release on his life and career.

Huntington was best known for his views on the importance of cultural identities and affiliations in shaping relations between and among states and nations—an argument popularly summarized by his vivid phrase, “the clash of civilizations,” first spelled out in a 1993 journal article and then expanded upon in a internationally best-selling book published in 1996.