THE BLUE AND WHITE Vol. VII, No. II October 2000 Columbia College, New York N Y DAMNATIO MEMORIA Against Renaming Halls, Verse by Emily E. Voigt MORNINGSIDE GOTHIC MEMORIES OF HISTORY AT COLUMBIA by Kevin Y. Kim Living Legacies Essay by Proj. Jacques Barzun CONTENTS. Columns 2 7 I ntroduction 31 B l u e J 34 Culinary Humanities 38 Measure for Measure 4 6 T o ld B e t w e e n P u ffs 47 C u r io C o lu m bia n a 5 0 L e c t u r e N o tes 55 C a m pu s G o s sip Features 28 Barzun on History at Columbia 32 Renaming Halls: An Attack in Verse 35 Where to Bury a Dead Body 37 The Story of Pranks Past 40 Morningside Gothic 45 Volunteering Guide $ About the Cover: “Low Castle” by Clare H. Ridley T ypographical N o t e The text of The Blue and White is set in Bodoni Old Face, which was revived by Günter Gerhard Lange based on original designs by Giambattista Bodoni of Parma (active between 1765 and 1813). The display face is Weiss, created by Rudolf Weiss for Bauer. T h e B l u e a n d W h i t e THE BLUE AND WHITE Vol. VII N e w Y o r k , O c t o b e r aooo No. II THE BLUE AND WHITE indling All Hallows pumpkin candles will be some time away still Editor-in-Chief when this issue of The MATTHEW RASCOFF, C’01 Blue and White reaches its Publisher faithful readers’ hands. C. ALEXANDER LONDON, C’02 But the spirit of October Managing Editor entire is imbued with an awareness of Tricks, Treats, and Ghosts. RICHARD J. MAMMANA, JR. C’02 Caspers first. Senior Editor Columbia’s ghosts are many; none doubt B. D. LETZLER, C’02 this. The riots of 1968 continue to wake the Graphics Editor echoes of the Hudson Valley, as do the souls of CLARE H. RIDLEY, C’02 departed alumni asking unsuspecting editors Literary Editor for directions to dorms long gone. KEVIN Y. KIM, C’02 (“What happened to Johnson Hall?” he asked me. “I haven’t been here in a while.” And as I Lecture Notes Editor pointed him in the direction of Wien, he YAACOB H. DWECK, C’02 walked in the other direction . .) Conversations Editor Some ghosts are happy. Others are not. But ANGHARAD COATES, C’02 they all inspire. They are spirits, and they goad Associate Publisher us on to memory, to creation, to emulation and JEREMY A. FALK, C’02 even to redemption of things gone wrong. (Whether they do it through fear or through Editors muse-like encouragement is another matter HILARY E. FELDSTEIN, C’01 altogether). We the undeparted have all the DANIEL S. IMMERWAHR, C’02 advantage of action. And so this issue takes a ARIEL MEYERSTEIN, C’02 look at things departed all over campus: build­ ADAM VALENSTEIN, C’02 ings, books, bodies and history. MARIEL L. WOLFSON, C’02 Now for tricks. Far be it from B & W staff to DAVID SACK, C’02 engage in anything but the most above-board EMILY E. VOIGT, C’02 of activities. Perish the thought! But the cam­ AINSLEY G. ROSS, B’04 pus is not without its own experience of the Artists most delicious of tricks, a healthy round of MISCHA BYRUCK, C’04 which is here served up for reader delectation. PAUL HEYER, C’04 The sweetest is last: a treat. In honor of our CRAIG HOLLANDER, C’04 two immediate Editors Emeriti, Sydney Treat ADAM WOLKOFF, C’04 C’1893 and Noam Elcott C’OO, the Treat-Elcott The B&Winvites contributions of original liter­ Prize will from now on be awarded to the fic­ ary work from the Columbia community and tion piece of best literary merit submitted to welcomes letters from all readers. Articles repre­ these pages during the course of the year. The sent the opinions of their authors. award consists of three parts: publication of Email: [email protected] the winning story, a $100 cash prize and pres­ tige unbounded. A treat indeed. ® O c t o b e r 2000 Memories of History at Columbia Living Legacies Essay by Professor Jacques Barzun ne of the silliest things done today in the dom adds that some were better than others. world of higher education is to publish This preamble is to make clear the character an annual ranking of the leading universities.of what follows, namely, how the Columbia TheO weeklies that conduct such surveys pre­ history department appeared in the second tend that the public wants to know which are and third quarters of this century, first to a stu­ best: it knows this about teams in professional dent, next to a young colleague, then to a sen­ sports, why not about colleges? The answer ior member, and finally to an academic admin­ that is given is about departments, not institu­ istrator. These four witnesses are myself. tions, so it is no guide to choosing a college. In 1923, when I entered Columbia College, it And the ranking is done by asking the mem­ was in the fifth year of its influential innova­ bers of departments to judge their colleagues tion, the required course called Introduction to elsewhere, so it yields very shaky estimates. Contemporary Civilization in the West. It had They are based on the kind and amount of replaced History 1, which had also been scholarly publication, so that added to the required. Contemporary Civilization (“C.C.”) unconscious bias of personal connections was an amalgam of the political, economic, and there is that of agreement on doctrine and intellectual history of Europe and America overvaluation of work done on the topic in from AD 1200 to the 1920s. It was taught in fashion. In a word, the ranking procedure is small sections by instructors drawn from the the very negation of scholarly method. It tells departments indicated by the list of the sub­ the public nothing about college education. jects combined. To many observers it seemed To know the quality of a department, college, strange at the time that instructors should be or university calls for residence within it in teaching matters “outside their field”; but if some working capacity, together with academ­ the student mind was capable of grasping the ic experience and the judicial mind. And even expanded offering, it was reasonable to suppose then, the most that can be ascertained is that the teacher’s could stretch to a like extent. whether, on the whole, the performance is out­ This departure and the argument about it standing, competent, or substandard. When arose from a fact of history itself. In the pre­ the testimony is detailed and abundant, as it ceding two decades, leading thinkers in every was in the late eighteenth century about the Western country had redefined the scope of universities of Scotland, one may conclude that the social sciences and of history in particular. as a group they attained excellence, and wis­ A generation before them, the English histori­ WEST SIDE STATIONERS IVY LEAGUE STATIONERS 2620 Broadway 2815 Broadway 2955 Broadway (corner of 99th St), (btn 108th-109th Sts), (btn 115th-116th Sts), NYC 10025 NYC 10025 NYC 10025 Tel: (212) 662-3151 Tel: (212) 222-9657 Tel: (212) 316-9741 Fax: (212) 662-3426 Fax:(212)222-9646 Fax: (212) 316-9743 PAUL JOHN DADU a8 T h e B lue a n d W h it e an E. A. Freeman had said: “History is past pol­ atmosphere of the University, and not alone itics,” and it was understood that to be com­ that of the College, was permeated by ideas plete a book-length piece of research could and feelings bom of the war. Three members cover no more than a few years. The revolt at of the history department, James T. Shotwell, the turn of the century was against this narrow Carlton J. H. Hayes GSAS’09 HON’29, and conception. When Karl Lamprecht came from Parker T. Moon had been involved in official Germany to the International Congress that work related in one way or another to treaty- met in St. Louis in 1904 to celebrate (a little making at Versailles; several of the younger tardily) the Louisiana Purchase, he declared members had been in the armed services; and that history must now make use of findings in the undergraduate body itself included an the new sociology and psy­ influential group of “veter­ chology. A little later at ans,” who were completing Columbia, James Harvey their interrupted education Robinson gave the program or beginning it after post­ of a “new history” that must ponement. Their presence take into account the life lent a touch of maturity to and force of ideas. In classwork in history: they France, Henri Berr, had been to Europe and responding to the world­ had seen the war. wide spirit of Populism, Like other departments of called on scholars to replace instruction at Columbia, the history of statesmen and history was divided into a warriors with that of “the College and a graduate people,” which meant a soci­ branch. The latter, housed ological concern with the In anticipation of the Columbia’s in Kent Hall, was composed past. Simultaneously, inter­ quarter millenium in 2004, The Blue of the senior members, who preters of Karl Marx wanted and White has teamed up with the taught only graduate cours­ to show economic facts as Anniversary Publication Committee to publish a series of “Living es.