What's Happened to the Humanities?
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
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.
William G. Bowen
William G. Bowen is president emeritus of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Princeton University. His many books include the acclaimed bestseller The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions and Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities (both Princeton).
Read more from William G. Bowen
The William G. Bowen Series
Related to What's Happened to the Humanities?
Titles in the series (6)
Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Regulating the Social: The Welfare State and Local Politics in Imperial Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSocial Bodies: Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gibeon, Where the Sun Stood Still: The Discovery of the Biblical City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's Urabi Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related ebooks
Science, Jews, and Secular Culture: Studies in Mid-Twentieth-Century American Intellectual History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the 11th and 12th Centuries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond the Cultural Turn: New Directions in the Study of Society and Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Every Valley Shall Be Exalted": The Discourse of Opposites in Twelfth-Century Thought Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Critical Pulse: Thirty-six Credos by Contemporary Critics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTheory's Empire: An Anthology of Dissent Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Body Economic: Life, Death, and Sensation in Political Economy and the Victorian Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlato Goes to China: The Greek Classics and Chinese Nationalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlobalisation: Studies in Anthropology Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Culture/Power/History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Greed and Injustice in Classical Athens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDisciplinarity at the Fin de Siècle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLogics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chinese History and Culture, volume 2: Seventeenth Century Through Twentieth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom History to Theory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Mind of the Middle Ages: An Historical Survey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Western Civilization to 1500 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Victorian Scientific Naturalism: Community, Identity, Continuity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sacred and the Secular University Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ethics through Literature: Ascetic and Aesthetic Reading in Western Culture Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Labyrinth: Intellectual History for Complicated Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Lover's Quarrel with the Past: Romance, Representation, Reading Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Color of Equality: Race and Common Humanity in Enlightenment Thought Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrimitive Culture Volume I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSociology and Scientism: The American Quest for Objectivity, 1880-1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death of a Discipline Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Teaching Methods & Materials For You
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speed Reading: Learn to Read a 200+ Page Book in 1 Hour: Mind Hack, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A study guide for Frank Herbert's "Dune" Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy's Bullsh*t to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Personal Finance for Beginners - A Simple Guide to Take Control of Your Financial Situation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Inside American Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Principles: Life and Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Making Friends: Helping Socially Challenged Teens and Young Adults Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everything You Need to Know About Personal Finance in 1000 Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Speed Reading: How to Read a Book a Day - Simple Tricks to Explode Your Reading Speed and Comprehension Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Tools of Learning Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix (10th Anniversary, Revised Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better Grammar in 30 Minutes a Day Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers: The Secret to Loving Teens Effectively Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for What's Happened to the Humanities?
0 ratings0 reviews