Stanley Hoffmann, the Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France at Harvard University, will give a lecture titled "France and Europe" at Cornell University Monday, Oct. 7, at 4:30 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall.

The lecture is free and open to the public and is part of the University Lectures series.

Born in Vienna, Hoffmann grew up in France and studied at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales, the University of Paris Law School and Harvard University's Department of Government. He has taught at Harvard since 1955.

He chaired Harvard's Center for European Studies from its inception in 1969 until last year. His courses have covered such topics as French intellectual and political history, American foreign policy, sociology of war and the history of Europe since 1945.

His books have included Contemporary Theory in International Relations; Decline or Renewal: France Since the '30s and The European Sisyphus: Essays on Europe, 1964-1994. Currently he is writing a book with Michael Smith of the University of Virginia on ethics and international relations.

Hoffmann has presided over the International Institute of Political Psychology and has received such awards as the International Organization Prize from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Order of Chevalier from the French Legion of Honor and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany.

John Weiss, Cornell associate professor of history and a former co-director of Cornell's Institute for European Studies, took seminars from Hoffmann at Harvard in the late 1960s (including one co-taught by Henry Kissinger).

"Hoffmann is one of the great teachers of European politics," Weiss said. "He has provided a powerful critique of the French political structure, particularly in terms of its vitality -- its capacity to change and to innovate. Over the past 30 years, his criticisms of French society have been very influential."

Goldwin Smith instituted the University Lectures at the turn of this century to bring the world's foremost scholars to the Cornell campus. Past lecturers have included novelist and playwright Carlos Fuentes; Bronislaw Geremek, a member of the Polish Academy of Science and adviser to the Solidarity labor union; and Donald Kagan, a scholar of ancient Greek history from Yale University.