The Story
Professor Harpham Recounts the History of the Humanities
In Blair 334 on March 31st, approximately 30 English faculty members, graduate, and undergraduate students gathered to hear Professor Geoffrey Harpham’s lecture entitled “How America Invented the Humanities,” sponsored by the English Department and Cloud Lecture Fund.
As explained by Professor Sean Keilen at the start of the presentation, the Cloud Lecture Fund began in 2004 by Sarah Cloud in honor of her husband, Dr. Jess Cloud. Besides formerly being a professor at the College, Dr. Cloud was an accomplished poet, author, and scholar. According to the English Department website, the speakers selected “are of national renown and may be outstanding scholars in the areas of Mr. Cloud’s achievements and scholarship.”
Professor Paula Blank followed Keilen with an introduction of Harpham. He received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and then went on to receive his Ph.D. at the University of California. Since completing his education, Harpham has taught at several universities and is now the President and Director of the National Humanities Center. He has also written eight books and over 75 articles, which Blank read the titles of in her introduction to show the range of Harpham’s interests and what Blank called, “His fascination with contradictions.”
Blank relayed in her introduction a favorite story found in a preface to one of his books that she felt characterized the guest speaker. After leaving his doctorate thesis, instead of simply retrieving it, Harpham started from scratch and re-wrote the entire thesis.
“It was not only thinkable, but desirable,” said Blank.
After Blank was finished, Harpham himself took the podium. He began by thanking Blank for her introduction.
“[It] made me nostalgic for my own career,” said Harpham.
Harpham then launched into his lecture. Assisted by a Powerpoint slideshow, Harpham highlighted the major ideas and publications that led to the creation of the Humanities. To start his explanation, he compared the founding of the Humanities to the founding of North America.
“We presume it’s a very ancient and far away thing, stretching back to Socrates,” said Harpham, “[that] nothing interesting or useful can be said; it’s just there.”
However, Harpham spent his lecture trying to prove this very thought process wrong.
“[The humanities] is an American invention whose entire span is in my lifetime,” said Harpham, giving the basis of his argument.
Harpham then highlighted the major documents and thinkers whose influence is still seen today in the humanities departments across the country. It began with a vision for the future held by the forefathers and articulated by John Adams in a quote that began Harpham’s lecture. In it, Adams expresses the hope that by studying war and politics now, his grandchildren would be able to study subjects such as painting, poetry, and music.
“[This vision] determined the development of liberal education,” said Harpham.
After Adams, the biggest influence on the creation of the humanities was what is called the Harvard Red Book, from which Harpham read a selection of quotes. This book was written by several authors and outlined what they felt were the necessary elements and goals of education. Although Harvard University rejected most of these ideas, President Truman adopted some of them, particularly that of the idea of "The Whole Man", in the document Higher Education for Democracy, from the Truman Report in 1947.
“This immediately became national education policy,” said Harpham.
Besides Adams, Harpham pointed to I.A. Richards, one of the authors of the Harvard Red Book, as one of the most influential men in the creation of the humanities. He differed from the other authors in a very particular way.
“[His] radical exclusion of anything outside the text [is] in direct contradiction with the rest of the Red Book,” said Harpham.
After pointing to the major figures, Harpham highlighted the major documents including the Higher Education for Democracy in the Truman Report (1947), the Report of the Commission on the Humanities in 1964, and the Rockefeller Report in 1980. Furthermore, Harpham pointed out the trends in these philosophies on the humanities, including the tendency to put the humanities in a state of crisis, to make it a “thing of the spirit” and to call for more funding.
Harpham concluded his lecture by giving an overview of the book The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope by Andrew Delbanco.
“[It] can be read as an angled view of humanities,” said Harpham, even though the book isn’t actually about the humanities.
Following his lecture, Harpham took questions from the audience which ranged from how to keep students interested in the humanities to how gender politics factored into this department’s history. Once all questions were answered, the audience and guest lecturer enjoyed drinks and refreshments.