Manuscripts Collection
Mulford Quickert Sibley was born in Marston, Missouri on June 14, 1912, the eldest of four children born to Erna and William Sibley. Sibley grew up in Oklahoma, received his bachelor’s degree from Central State College in 1933, and completed his master’s degree at the University of Oklahoma a year later. He earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota in 1938 and then taught at the University of Illinois until 1948 when he returned as an associate professor to the University of Minnesota.
A Methodist by upbringing, Sibley began to follow Quaker teachings in his undergraduate years and was classed as a conscientious objector during World War II. Due to his outspoken beliefs on Quakerism, pacifism, socialism, parapsychology, and intellectual freedom, Sibley was popularly known as a campus radical. His popularity as a professor in political science and American studies at the University of Minnesota was unparalleled.
Sibley’s radical reputation extended beyond the Minneapolis campus in 1964 when his support of a student organization was criticized both locally by a St. Paul commissioner and nationally by William F. Buckley. This reputation quickly grew to international proportions when immigration officials barred Sibley from entering Canada for a speaking engagement in March of 1965.
Sibley’s writings on political philosophy were widely published in both journal articles
and monographs. His first publication, “Apology for Utopia” appeared in 1940 as a two-part article in the
Sibley retired from the University of Minnesota in 1982 though he continued to teach in the law school of Hamline University and to lecture wherever he was asked. Sibley died in Minnesota on April 12, 1989 from a heart attack following complications of asthma, Parkinson’s disease, and a viral infection he contracted in India in 1986.
Biographical information was taken from the collection.
The bulk of the papers focus on Sibley's academic career, his defense of intellectual freedom, and his extensive writings on political philosophy, particularly on the subjects of classical and modern political theory, conscientious objection, pacifism, utopianism, and parapsychology.
Information included within the biographical materials provide limited documentation of Sibley's participation as a speaker in peace rallies, anti-nuclear demonstrations, and Vietnam war protests.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota
Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics should
Accession number: 15,223
Processed by: Monica Manny Ralston, October 1997
Catalog ID number: 001734914
The biographical materials contain Sibley’s curriculum vitae and publication listings; photographs of Sibley and his wife Marjorie; files containing printed materials related to his lecture, speaking, rally, demonstration, and writing activities; printed materials pertaining to his retirement and death; press clippings; files released by the FBI in response to Sibley’s freedom of information request; and an interview televised by the University of Minnesota.
Sibley was a prolific and frequent correspondent. Included within his papers are correspondence with family, friends, mentors, students, colleagues, editors, publishers, critics, legislators, university officials, and organizations with which Sibley was affiliated. Topics included within the correspondence range from Sibley’s post-graduate appointments; his manuscripts; his publications; his visiting lectureships; his speaking engagements and public appearances; letters to newspaper editors; his interest and research in parapsychology; his role as an advisor and mentor to graduate students within the political science and American studies programs of the University of Minnesota; and his associations with the Socialist Party, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters League, and the Society of Friends.
The correspondence is arranged in two sequences. For the most part, correspondence prior to September 1957 is arranged in an alphabetical sequence while correspondence after this date is arranged in chronological order. Items within each sequence are filed in reverse chronological order with the earliest items appearing at the end of a file and the latest items appearing at the beginning. After 1960, the chronological sequence is further divided into sets of incoming and outgoing correspondence.
A few files related to specific projects and issues are arranged within the chronological sequence. In particular, these files contain Sibley’s correspondence with the Selective Service regarding his IV-E status as a conscientious objector during the second world war; correspondence from listeners about Sibley’s radio lectures while a member of the faculty at the University of Illinois; correspondence from viewers regarding televised courses on utopianism broadcast by the University of Minnesota; and correspondence and working papers from Mike Stratford, one of Sibley’s former students and a political science faculty member at Central Michigan University, concerning Stratford’s analyses of Sibley’s political ideology.
There are also specific files related to Sibley’s work on two books. The first of
these projects was sponsored by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation with
assistance from the Pacifist Research Bureau and was published as the book,
Materials pertaining to the second book project contain correspondence and account
information concerning the Social Science Program Associates. The Associates was a
partnership between Sibley, Don Calhoun, Arthur Naftalin, Benjamin N. Nelson, and
Andreas G. Papandreou who coauthored J. B. Lippincott’s publication of
Also included within this series are files specifically related to Sibley’s role in a national controversy regarding academic freedom during 1964-1965. These files contain correspondence and news clippings related to an editorial Sibley wrote in 1963 for the University of Minnesota’s campus newspaper. Sibley’s editorial was written in defense of the Student Peace Union, an organization to which Sibley served as the faculty adviser, and whose membership had been denounced as Communist. Sibley’s editorial engaged local furor led by Milton Rosen (then commissioner of St. Paul's public works) who, with the backing of a citizens' league, approached the state legislature in April of 1965 calling for Sibley’s dismissal from the University. National and international attention was aroused when William F. Buckley criticized Sibley in a syndicated newspaper column and when Canada refused to allow Sibley entrance for a speaking engagement sponsored by the Manitoba Voice of Women. The correspondence included within these files includes letters in support of Sibley as well as letters condemning his position.
This series includes both typescript draft and published versions of Sibley’s literary work. Specifically included are Sibley’s college course papers and graduate theses, book reviews, poetry, essays and articles, monographs, two editions of a utopian novel, book chapters, and radio commentaries. Also included are reviews of two of Sibley’s books. Bibliographies and curriculum vitae detailing Sibley’s publications may be referenced within the collection’s biographical materials.
The typescripts are arranged by literary genre and are further arranged in chronological order. A large majority of the materials are dated by approximate decade and almost all carry annotations in Sibley’s handwriting. Additional annotations may have been added at a later date by Sibley’s wife.
The essays and articles comprise the bulk of both the typescripts and the publications. Included are journal articles, conference papers, dictionary and encyclopedia essays, lectures, letters to newspaper editors, speeches, commencement addresses, treatises prepared for Quaker and Unitarian meetings, and radio commentaries. Scattered letters from editors, publishers, and critics are also included though the majority must be referenced within Sibley’s correspondence files.
Topics covered by the writings include Sibley’s general interest in classical and modern political and social theory; his extensive studies on utopianism, pacifism, socialism, anarchism, religion, and parapsychology; and his personal views on world and national issues and events. As an avowed pacifist and Quaker, the themes of individualism, civil obedience, and religion are evident throughout Sibley’s work. His early work centered on analyses of ancient and modern political theorists as well as international and New Deal politics while his later work centered on his own theories regarding society, politics, religion, and the individual.
Sibley’s work began to be published during the 1940s when he was focusing upon utopian philosophies, World War II conscientious objection, and post-war economics, industry, and technology. During the 1950s Sibley focused on Marxism, socialism, global politics, the problems of conformity and civil obedience, and the Satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi. During the 1960s, as colleges across the country witnessed mounting campus unrest, Sibley began to focus more heavily upon democratic socialism and American politics. His articles and essays were particularly concerned with technology, industrialism, urbanization, the American involvement in Vietnam, and Martin Luther King’s philosophy of non-violent resistance. It was also during this time that Sibley became embroiled in public debate over academic and intellectual freedom. During the 1970s and 1980s, while world politics, technology, and socialism remained a major focus, Sibley wrote increasingly about religion, mysticism, and parapsychology.
After he retired from the University of Minnesota, Sibley’s body of work began to be critiqued by other political scientists. Contained within this series are papers presented at four conference sessions on Sibley’s political thought as well as Sibley’s response to papers presented during three of these sessions.
Includes Sibley’s commentary and papers by Richard Dagger, James Farr, Susan Matarese, and Ronald S. Christensen.
Includes Sibley's commentary and papers by Richard Dagger, Daniel R. Sabia, Peter C. Sederberg.
Includes Sibley’s commentary and papers by Richard Dagger, Susan Matarese, Peter Sederberg, and Michael Stratford.
Includes correspondence addressed to Marjorie Sibley with a copy of the paper, “Sitnalta, Lost Manuscript,” presented by Dan Sabia at the Society’s annual meeting.
A transcript of a discussion between Sibley, Francis Swietlik, and Ernest Von Hartz regarding the formation of the United Nations which was broadcast by WGN at Northwestern University and published in The Reviewing Stand.
Includes published editions of journal articles, book chapters, monographs, and article reprints.
Arranged alphabetically by course title, the teaching materials include copies of the syllabi, bibliographies, outlines, lecture notes, study questions, and examinations used in both the political science and American studies courses taught by Sibley at the University of Minnesota and his visiting professorships. Sibley’s courses included introductory and advanced classes on ancient, medieval, and modern political theory and issue-specific courses on utopianism, pacifism, individualism, and religion.
Includes Sibley’s manuscript, “The Place of Classical Political Theory in the Study of Politics: The Legitimate Spell of Plato.”