Thomas Pangle - Education and Career

Education and Career

Pangle was born and grew up in Gouverneur, New York. He graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966, "with distinction in all subjects" and ranked fifth in class, having studied political philosophy under Allan Bloom. Pangle received his Ph.D. in political science in 1972 from University of Chicago. His dissertation was "Montesquieu and the Moral Basis of Liberal Democracy," completed under the supervision of Joseph Cropsey, Herbert Storing, and Richard E. Flathman.

From 1971 to 1979 he taught at Yale University, first as a lecturer and then as an assistant professor and associate professor. In 1979 he was appointed to Graduate School at the University of Toronto as an Associate Professor and was awarded tenure. He became a professor in 1983 and was named University Professor in 2001. During his tenure at the University of Toronto Pangle was first a fellow at Victoria College from 1979 to 1984 and then at St. Michael's College from 1985 to 2004. Pangle left the University of Toronto after 25 years to accept the position of Joe R. Long Chair in Democratic Studies in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, citing concerns about mandatory retirement. Harvard University made an offer and the University of Toronto made a counteroffer but ultimately Pangle decided to move to the University of Texas.

Pangle was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago in 1984 and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in 1987.

Pangle is married to fellow professor Lorraine Smith Pangle, who was also a faculty member at the University of Toronto and is a professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas.