In Memoriam: Linda B. Miller

Linda B. Miller, professor emerita of political science, passed away on Jan. 19 at the Cape Cod Hospital, not far from her beloved home in Wellfleet, Mass. She was born in 1937 and raised throughout World War II and the early Cold War in the small but dynamic Jewish community in Manchester, N.H., that included her schoolmate James O. Freedman, later Dartmouth College president. They dated in their teens, but, as Linda dismissively remembered, “Nothing came of it.”

Linda graduated from the Emma Willard School in Troy, N.Y., and went on to Radcliffe (“Not Harvard!”) where she found her mentor, Stanley Hoffmann, the young French political scientist who became a towering figure in the liberal tradition of international relations. She went on to take her Ph.D. at Columbia and soon published what remains a classic in her field, World Order and Local Disorder: The United Nations and Internal Conflicts, before she turned 30.

Her scholarly publications continued for more than 50 years. She worked particularly closely with scholars in the United Kingdom, publishing widely on all aspects of world politics and American foreign policy in the journals of the British policy institute Chatham House. She developed strong friendships with colleagues at the London School of Economics, including James Mayall, who later set up the international relations doctoral program at Cambridge and was a frequent speaker Wellesley, as well as Margaret Doxey, an eminent international legal theorist whom Linda convinced to teach every third semester at Wellesley for many years. Linda’s later projects included a study of Stanley Hoffmann’s work and influence and studies of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy that she conducted with Inderjeet Parmar, president of the British International Studies Association.

In 1969, Linda left a job in Harvard’s department of government to come to Wellesley, where she met her life partner, Phyllis Fleming, Sarah Whiting Professor of Physics and dean of the College from 1968 to 1972.

To students in political science, Linda quickly became “Killer Miller,” known for fighting classroom drowsiness by opening wide all the windows on three sides of the classroom, even on subzero days. Linda, who said that she really strived to be known as “Cupcake Miller,” explained to a junior colleague that one always needed to respond to a student with a positive remark—but many generations of political science majors quickly learned to fear when Linda began, “Well, that is an interesting comment.”

Linda was as open about her own views as she was about her standards. To students taking her introduction to world politics course she would begin by saying, “I am a small-d democrat, a large-D Democrat, and a Zionist, and if any of that bothers you, I suggest you register for a different class.” Linda was conscious of being part of the first generation of Wellesley faculty that included Jews, but she also often pointed out that Phyllis was one of the first, if not the first, Catholic that WASPy Wellesley deemed fit to tenure. One of Linda’s happiest times was when Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel, was honored at Wellesley’s centenary, becoming one of very few people to receive an honorary degree from the College.

It was in Linda’s character that, as strong a Zionist as she was, she was no apologist. She told an MIT friend from Kansas about visiting the Israeli-occupied parts of Lebanon in 1982 as part of a “Myths and Facts” bus tour organized by Menachem Begin’s government. Throughout, she sat next to Wichita’s congressman, Dan Glickman, who became increasingly quiet and tense as the tour went on. At the end, he turned to Linda and whispered, “Very few facts and some awful myths.” Linda told her friend how correct Glickman was, and how surprised Linda was to learn that he was so perceptive, as someone who’d spent his whole life in “flyover country.” (Linda was not without her own prejudices!)

Linda retired from Wellesley in 2004 and taught for 15 more years at Brown University. Her life drew closer to her Wellfleet home with its beautiful gardens and lovely artwork. Phyllis joined her after her own retirement. Linda lost Phyllis in 2009, but continued to speak out and to teach community groups in Wellfleet. She remained devoted to the Cape’s natural beauty, serving as chair of the Center for Coastal Studies for many years. She brought her commitment to learning to a lecture series she funded at Wellfleet’s library, too.

At some point, Linda gave the Smithsonian a National Organization for Women poster that she’d saved from the early 1970s—it featured a portrait of Golda Meir with the caption, “But can she type?” Linda may have thought of the poster as a mirror.