A black-and-white portrait of an older man in a dark pinstripe suit gesturing with his right hand while speaking. Hans Morgenthau on April 2, 1969. Denver Post via Getty Images Review Realism Was Forged in Trauma A new biography explores the intimate origins of Hans Morgenthau’s hard-boiled worldview. November 13, 2026, 3:00 PM United States By Jon Skolnik, an editor at MIT Press. Some of the most enduring theories of power were born in its absence. Thucydides, exiled from Amphipolis for failing to ward off the Spartans, surmised that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what...