The University of California loyalty oath collection consists of five pamphlets and one letter pertaining to the U.C. Berkeley loyalty oath controversy of 1949-1951. The collection documents anti-Communist movements in the early 1950s, their impact on higher education, and Ernst Kantorowicz's involvement in the University of California loyalty oath.

The University of California loyalty oath famously involved German exile historian and medievalist Ernst Kantorowicz (1895-1963), who was fired from the University of California, Berkeley for refusing to sign the oath. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Kantorowicz was closely associated with the culturally conservative George-Kreis group. Kantorowicz's connection to Nazi Germany is complex and somewhat contradictory. Kantorowicz was Jewish and forced into exile in the United States, but he was also a cultural conservative and a nationalist.

0.06 Linear Feet 1 pamphlet binder

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

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