What's Happened to the Humanities?

Book Overview

This volume of specially commissioned original essays presents the thoughts of some of the most distinguished commentators within the American academy on the fundamental changes that have taken place in the humanities in the latter part of the twentieth century. In the transformation of American higher education from the university to the "demoversity," the humanities have become a less and less important part of education, a matter established by a statistical appendix and elaborated on in several of the essays. The individual essays offer close observations into how the humanities have been affected by declining academic status, by demographic shifts, by reductions in financial support, and by changing communication technology. They also explore the effect of these forces on books, libraries, and the phenomenology of reading in the age of images. When basic conditions change, theory follows, and several essays trace the appearance and effect of new relativistic epistemologies in the humanities. Social institutions change as well in such circumstances, and the volume concludes with studies of the new social arrangements that have developed in the humanities in recent years: the attack on professionalism and the effort to transform the humanities into the social conscience of academia and even of the nation as a whole. Cause and effect? Who can say? What the essays make clear, however, is that as the humanities have become less significant in American higher education, they have also been the scene of unusually energetic pedagogical, social, and intellectual changes. The contributors to the volume are David Bromwich, John D'Arms, Denis Donoghue, Carla Hesse, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Lynn Hunt, Frank Kermode, Louis Menand, Francis Oakley, Christopher Ricks, and Margery Sabin. Included is a substantial introduction by Alvin Kernan and an appendix of tables and figures showing baccalaureate and doctoral degrees over the years in various types of schools. Originally published in 1997. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691011559
• ISBN13: 9780691011554
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.8" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A Very Important Book

Though now somewhat dated (the fervor over Theory has now abated to a considerable degree), this is a superb set of essays on the title's question. Edited by a distinguished scholar who has also served as a graduate dean, Alvin Kernan, the volume includes essays by such important commentators as Denis Donoghue, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Frank Kermode, Christopher Ricks and Louis Menand. All of the essays are worth reading. I found particularly useful Lynn Hunt's piece on the impact of demographics on the humanities (which is filled with interesting and important data on enrollments, budgets and curricula); John D'Arms article on the decline of funding for humanities research (his piece and Hunt's being frequently cited elsewhere); Louis Menand's study of the demise of disciplinary authority, Gertrude Himmelfarb's mini-history of Theory and David Bromwich's essay on politicization. There is also an appendix containing a useful set of tables on baccalaureate and Ph.D. production from 1966-1993. Many of the essays explore issues in American educational history above and beyond specific matters affecting the humanities, e.g., the etiology of vocationalism. This is an important book for everyone interested in the plight of the humanities in American higher education.