NATIONALHumanities ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES • VOLUME 12 • NUMBER 3 • MAY/JUNE 1991 Gertrude Himmelfarb Jefferson Lecturer Editor's Note Gertrude Himmelfarb This issue of Humanities looks at the life and work of historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, who has been chosen as the 1991 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities. She is the twentieth recipient of the honor, which is the highest award the federal government bestows for distinguished achievement in the humanities. Himmelfarb, a historian of Victorian England, has been described as "one of the most gifted and trenchant interpreters of the Victorian scene." Bernard Historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, 1991 Jeffer­ Semmel likens her outlook to that of poet-critic Matthew Arnold. "Her intel­ son Lecturer. (Photo by Barbara Ries) lectual opponents, like his, are the system-makers, the enemies of culture, and the advocates of moral anarchy, those who put their faith in a mechanical and Humanities material civilization. Her allies are those who stress the values of the human­ A bimonthly review published by the ist tradition, with its belief that individual activity can be effective and that National Endowment for the Humanities individual responsibility is inescapable." Her first published work, Lord Acton: A Study in Conscience and Politics, C h airm an : Lynne V. Cheney appeared in 1952. Since then, there have been seven more, exploring different Publisher, Editorial Director: facets of the Victorian period: Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (1959), Victo­ Marguerite Hoxie Sullivan rian Minds: Essays on Nineteenth Century Intellectuals (1968), On Liberty and E d ito r: Mary Lou Beatty Liberalism: The Case of John Stuart Mill (1974), The Idea of Poverty: England in the Assistant Editors: James S. Turner Industrial Age (1984), Marriage and Morals among the Victorians (1987), The New Ellen Marsh History and the Old (1987), and the soon-to-be-published Poverty and Compas­ Editorial Assistant: Kristen Hall sion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians. Marketing Director: Joy Evans "Throughout a distinguished career combining scholarly research and teaching, Editorial Board: Marjorie Berlincourt, Professor Himmelfarb has made enduring contributions to our understanding of Harold Cannon, Richard Ekman, George the past," NEH Chairman Lynne V. Cheney said last fall in announcing the selec­ F. Farr, Jr., Donald Gibson, Guinevere tion. "Her writings and lectures affirm the value of studying the great historical Griest, James Herbert, Thomas Kingston, ideas and institutions that have influenced modern democratic societies." Jerry Martin, Malcolm Richardson Himmelfarb was born in 1922 in New York. She earned her bachelor of arts D esig n : Hausmann Graphic Design, Inc. degree from Brooklyn College and her master's and doctorate in history from the University of Chicago. Himmelfarb taught for twenty-three years at Brooklyn The opinions and conclusions expressed in Humanities are those of the authors and do not College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York, where she necessarily reflect Endowment policy. Material was named Distinguished Professor of History in 1978. She is now professor appearing in this publication, except for that emeritus. She and her husband, Irving Kristol, live in Washington, D.C. They already copyrighted, may be reproduced. have two grown children, William and Elizabeth. Please notify the editor in advance so that appropriate credit can be given. Humanities Himmelfarb is a fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Historical (ISSN 0018-7526) is published bimonthly for Society, and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American $11 per year by the National Endowment for Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also serves on the board of the Woodrow the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. Second-class Wilson International Center and the councils of the Library of Congress and postage paid at Washington, D.C., and addi­ the American Enterprise Institute. tional mailing offices. Annual subscription rate: $11.00 domestic, $13.75 foreign. Two Himmelfarb was chosen for the annual honor by the National Council on the years: $22.00, $27.50. Humanities, the presidentially appointed advisory body of the Endowment. The Telephone: 202/786-0435. Fax: 202/786-0240. award, which carries a $10,000 stipend, honors the intellectual and civic accom­ plishments exemplified by Thomas Jefferson. It provides a forum for a distin­ guished scholar to deliver a public lecture on issues of broad concern. This year is the twentieth anniversary of the Jefferson Lectures. To mark the occasion, we revisit some of Himmelfarb's distinguished predecessors and recall what they had to say about the state of the humanities in America. —Mary Lou Beatty 2 MAY/JUNE 1991 Contents The Jefferson Lecture A Conversation with ... Historian Gertrude Himmelfarb and NEH Chairman Lynne V. Cheney discuss the cultural and historical legacy of Victorian England. Compassion: An Unsentimental View by Gertrude Himmelfarb. A more sinewy definition of the ethos of the late Victorians. Excerpts: From the Books of Gertrude Himmelfarb. Passages on poverty, the crisis of belief, Darwin, J. S. Mill, and Lord Acton. The Twentieth Anniversary. A milestone is remembered with words from past Lecturers. The Victorian Inheritance Gertrude Himmelf arb: In Celebration by Bernard Semmel. Her role in examining an age that contrasts to our own in valuing a humanist tradition. "The Decent Drapery of Life": Morals among the Victorians by Robert Nisbet. A look at some prominent personages through the graceful medium of the essay. Arnold's Double-Sided Culture by John P. Farrell. The celebration of perfection without a utopian motive. The Letters of Darwin by Douglas N. Varley. How correspondence with colleagues furthered the research leading to The Origin of Species. Other Features Calendar The Numbers Game by Jeffrey Thomas. The doubling of humanities Ph.D.'s in the United States to 100,000. Ex Libris. The annual list of NEH-supported books, museum catalogues, and other publications. The Humanities Guide Humanities Projects in Libraries by Thomas Phelps, 45. Deadlines, 46. A Conversation w ith... Historian Gertrude Himmelfarb NEH Chairman example, is the humanist par excellence, culture. It was wonderful to watch Lynne V. Cheney and our culture finds him difficult to my students trying to come to terms talks with histor­ understand and respect. I know you with this book. I don't think I con­ ian Gertrude did your dissertation on Arnold. verted many of them to Arnold's point Himmelfarb, the When were you working on that? of view, but I certainly convinced 1991 Jefferson Cheney: Sixty-eight, sixty-nine. them that their ideas had been antici­ Lecturer in the pated—and powerfully criticized. Himmelfarb: That was the same Humanities, about Cheney: He is amazingly relevant. If year, 1969, that I taught Culture and the cultural and historical legacy of Vic­ you're looking for a quote on cultural Anarchy for the first time in a gradu­ torian England. Himmelfarb is professor topics or on the kind of cultural con­ ate seminar. It was an extraordinary emeritus of history at the City University flict that we've seen of late in the aca­ experience. You know it, of course. of New York and the author of eight books, demy, Arnold is rich with possibilities. among them The Idea of Poverty, The Cheney: Oh, it's wonderful. Every once in a while he sounds a lit­ New History and the Old, and the Himmelfarb: What made it especially tle elitist to my ear. He talks about forthcoming Poverty and Compassion: wonderful then was the fact that, "the masses" a little more than I'd like. The Moral Imagination of the Late exactly a hundred years after it had Himmelfarb: On the other hand, his Victorians. been written, we were in much the analysis of society is not elitist. He situation Arnold had anticipated. 1969, divided society, you remember, into Lynne V. Cheney: Why is it that the you remember, was a time of student three classes: the populace, the phil- Victorians are either ignored or vili­ riots, strikes, and a general rebellion istines (corresponding to the middle fied today? against authority, in and out of the class), and—do you remember his Gertrude Himmelfarb: They repre­ academy. There were the students, name for the aristocracy?—the bar­ sent almost everything that the mod­ priding themselves on this great new barians. The barbarians are not the ish groups in our culture denigrate— liberating movement, the countercul­ masses, not the lower classes, which morality, tradition, self-discipline, ture. And there was Arnold expos­ is what my students always assume, "high culture," the whole humanist ing that counterculture as a form of but the upper class, the aristocracy. range of values. Matthew Arnold, for anarchy, the very antithesis of real And they are barbarians because they 4 MAY/JUNE 1991 are mindless, uncultivated, because the kind of journalist today who does degrade the issues. But the interest­ they're not pursuing the free play precisely that in relation to public ing thing is that the public is more of the mind, the best that has been figures. I think you'd have to recast resistant to this than one might think. thought and said, and so on. the argument a little bit to make this In this sense, the public culture is much Cheney: Well, that whole notion of point. You'd have to talk not about healthier than the elitist culture—that the free play of the mind over ideas heroes and valets, but about public is, the culture of the media and of the has always struck me as a scholarly figures and journalists. academy. For example, the public ideal, and it is so amazing to me to be Cheney: I suppose that's why it's on wants to read biographies of great men.