Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities

The National Endowment for the Humanities presents the Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities The National Endowment Hoover Institution for the Humanities Stanford University Washington, D.C. Stanford, California Wednesday, May 2, 1990 Thursday, May 10,1990 The National Endowment for the Humanities presents the Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities East Coast Program Departmental Auditorium Washington, D.C. Wednesday, May 2, 1990 West Coast Program Hoover Institution Stanford University Thursday, May 10, 1990 National Endowment for the Humanities East Coast Program Welcome an d Rem arks Lynne V. Cheney Chairman National Endowment for the Humanities Introduction Hillel Fradkin Vice President for Program The Bradley Foundation The Nineteenth Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities Bernard Lewis “Western Civilization: A View from the East” Special Presentation Reception National Museum of American History Hoover Institution Stanford University West Coast Program Welcome John Raisian Acting Director Hoover Institution Opening Remarks Lynne V. Cheney Chairman National Endowment for the Humanities Introduction Ewart A.C. Thomas Dean, Humanities and Sciences Stanford University The Nineteenth Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities Bernard Lewis “Western Civilization: A View from the East” Special Presentation Reception Stauffer Auditorium Bernard Lewis “ "X T o human being is free from regarded as the opening of the study of human failings, among them modern Turkey. Other works include ^1 loyalties and prejudices which The Arabs in History (1950), The Middle may color his perception and presenta East and the West (1964), The Assassins: tion o f history,” writes Bernard Lewis in A Radical Sect in Islam (1967), The History—Remembered, Recovered, Muslim Discovery of Europe (1982), The Invented (1975). “The essence of the Jews of Islam (1984), The Political critical scholarly historian is that he is Language of Islam (1988), and the soon aware of this fact, and instead of indulg to be published Race and Slavery in the ing his prejudices seeks to identify and Middle East: An Historical Enquiry. correct them.” His books have been translated into Lewis has spent more than five decades nineteen foreign languages, including in his pursuit of historical truth, never Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew. deviating from his mission as a historian A prolific writer, Lewis has written and Islamicist. From 1949 to 1974, articles for Foreign Affairs, Commentary, Lewis taught history in the University of The New York Review of Books, The New London’s School of Oriental and African York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Studies. Recognized as the ranking Journal, The New York Times, and other scholar of Islamic and Middle Eastern journals and periodicals. history, he is the Cleveland E. Dodge Bom in London in 1916, Lewis Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern received his bachelor’s and doctoral Studies at Princeton University. He has degrees from the University of London also been coeditor of The Encyclopedia of and later earned his diplome des etudes Islam and a member of Princeton’s semitiques from the Universite de Paris. Institute for Advanced Study. He moved to the United States in 1974 He has taught and lectured at a to become a professor of Near Eastern number of other colleges and universi Studies at Princeton University, where ties including the University of Chicago; he served until his retirement in 1986. College de France; Collegio de Mexico; Among his many honors and awards, University' o f California, Los Angeles and Lewis has been named a member o f the ROBERT P. MATTHEWS Berkeley; Columbia University; Indiana American Philosophical Society, the University; and other academic institutions British Academy, the Turkish Historical in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Society, and the Institut d’Egypte. Lewis Lewis has written and edited more received the Citation of Honor from the than twenty books in the field. The Turkish Ministry of Culture in 1973. Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961) is He holds five honorary degrees. The Jefferson Lecture 1981 1986 Gerald Holton delivered the tenth Leszek Kolakowski delivered the fifteenth n 1972 the National Endowment for the Humanities established the Jefferson Lecture, “Where Is Science Jefferson Lecture, “The Idolatry of Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities as the highest official award the federal Taking Us?,” in Washington, D.C., and Politics,” in Washington, D.C., and I government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humani Boston. Holton examined the historical Chicago. Acknowledging the legacy of ties. The lecture provides the opportunity for an outstanding thinker to explore, relationships between the humanities the Enlightenment, Kolakowski cau in a public forum, matters o f broad concern in the humanities and to affirm the and the sciences and the dependence of tioned against converting political relationship between the great works of the humanities and the intellectual, moral, science on value judgments. commitments into moral principles, thus and political traditions of our civilization. The Jefferson lecturer is chosen each year 1982 “fabricate(ing) gods for an ad hoc use in a political power game.” by the National Council on the Humanities. Emily T. Vermeule presented the elev Previous Lecturers enth Jefferson Lecture, “ Greeks and 1987 Barbarians: The Classical Experience in In the sixteenth Jefferson Lecture, “The 1972 19 77 the Larger World,” in Washington D.C. Intellectual World of the Founding The first Jefferson lecturer, Lionel The sixth Jefferson Lecture, “The Writer Her lecture, illustrated with slides, dis Fathers,” Forrest McDonald paid tribute Trilling, in his address, “Mind and and His Country Look Each Other cussed the significance of archaeological to the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitu the Modem World,” examined con Over,” was Saul Bellow's nostalgic discoveries. tion by examining the intellectual temporary culture in relation to the recollection of his growth as a writer in 1983 origins that shaped America’s founding. humanities. Chicago during the Great Depression. He presented the lecture in Washington, Jaroslav Pelikan, the twelfth Jefferson The two-part lecture was given in D.C., and Lawrence, Kansas. 1973 lecturer, delivered a two-part lecture, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Erik H. Erikson, in the second lecture, “The Vindication of Tradition,” in 1988 “Dimensions of a New Identity,” 1978 which he examined “Tradition as Tracing the American communitarian examined the American identity as it C. Vann Woodward, in the seventh History” and “Tradition as Heritage.” state from its beginnings in World War I evolved during Jefferson’s lifetime and lecture, “ Europe’s America,” addressed He gave the lectures in Washington, through the major events of the twenti into contemporary society. historical and contemporary European D.C., and Chicago. eth century and contemporary America, 1974 views of America. He gave his lecture in 1984 Robert Nisbet delivered the seventeenth Washington, D.C., and Seattle. Jefferson Lecture, “The Present Age and The thirteenth Jefferson Lecture, “The In the third lecture, “Democracy and the State o f Community,” in Washing 1979 Humanities and the Defense of a Free Poetry,” Robert Penn Warren probed ton, D.C. poetry’s role in a modern industrial Edward Shils, in the eighth lecture, Society,” was delivered by Sidney Hook society with special attention to the “ Render unto Caesar...,” discussed the in Washington, D.C., and New York 1989 concept of self. reciprocity of rights and duties among City. Hook examined the problem of In the eighteenth Jefferson Lecture, 1975 the government, society, and the maintaining allegiance to democratic “The Fateful Rift: The San Andreas universities. He delivered his lecture in ideals in the face of rising worldwide Fault in the Modern Mind,” Walker Paul A. Freund, in the fourth lecture, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Austin. totalitarianism. Percy showed how modern science fails “Liberty: The Great Disorder of to explain uniquely human behavior and Speech,” focused on the benefit o f free 1980 1985 proposed a new “science of man” that dom of speech and of the press, as well Barbara Tuchman presented her lecture, In the fourteenth Jefferson Lecture, focuses on the way language links the as on the responsibilities of those who the ninth in the series, on “Mankind’s “ Literature in a Technological Age,” mind with the physical world. Percy de Better Moments,” examining those rare Cleanth Brooks claimed that the age of exercise these freedoms. livered the lecture in Washington, D.C. times in world history when humans technology has obscured the importance 1976 were at their best in creating and of literature and given rise to a synthetic The fifth Jefferson lecturer, John Hope developing a better life. Tuchman spoke prose that is “ gutless, bloodless, and Franklin, explored “ Racial Equality in in Washington, D.C., and London. thoroughly inhuman.” He delivered the America,” the foundations of racism lecture in Washington, D.C., and New and its implications for contemporary Orleans. society. Franklin spoke in Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. National Endowment Stanford University for the Humanities tanford University was founded The university is organized into seven schools: earth science, education, engi he National Endowment for the o f the social sciences that employ his by Leland and Jane Stanford in neering, graduate school of business, Humanities is an independent torical

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