'Clash of Civilizations' Author Samuel Huntington Dies

December 28, 2008 11:00 a.m. EST

Boston, MA (AHN) - Samuel Huntington, one of the nation's most influential political scientists, has died at 81, Harvard University said on Saturday.

Huntington, who taught at Harvard for 58 years before retiring in 2007, died on Wednesday at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. He was best known for the book, "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order."

Published in 1996, it expanded a 1993 article he had written in the journal Foreign Affairs arguing that cultural and religious differences would be the primary source of conflict in a post-Cold War world.

His book had caused controversy when it was published, having "simplified" the world into Christianity, Islam and other religions. Despite the criticisms, it has been translated into 39 languages and has become a fundamental part of studies in foreign relations. The book caused widespread debate and gained renewed support after the 9/11 attacks.

Huntington, a life-long Democrat, was born in New York City on April 18, 1927, to Richard Thomas Huntington, an editor and publisher, and Dorothy Sanborn Phillips, a writer. He served in the Army after graduating from Yale in 1946 and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1951.

He worked as a speechwriter for the presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and was foreign policy adviser to Hubert Humphrey in his 1968 White House bid. Huntington also served in the Carter administration as coordinator of security planning for the National Security Council in 1977.