Indiana Magazine of History

INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY ’Volume XLV SEPTEMBER,1949 Number 3 The Heroic Age of the Social Sciences Robert S. Fletcher* History, political theory, and economics were not wholly neglected even in the colonial colleges. But history was chiefly treated as the handmaiden of theology and the Greek and Latin classics, while economic and political matters were dealt with in the courses in moral philosophy and ethics. The American Revolution and the experience of constitu- tion-making gave a great impetus to the study of politics. In 1779, Thomas Jefferson was instrumental in bringing about a notable revision of the curriculum of William and Mary College whereby more emphasis was placed upon political studies; by 1792 a knowIedge of “NationaI Law, Law of Nations, and the general principles of politics” was required for graduation. Other colleges followed this example. In the two succeeding generations the Federalist was listed as a text in many catalogs, and Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and the Declaration of Independence were often included in required reading. New books on moral philosophy appeared with an ex- panded political emphasis. In 1795 a professor at Columbia published a Systematic Treatise on Moral Philosophy: Com- prehending the Law of Nature-Ethics-Natural Jurispru- dence-General Economy-Politics-and the Lnw of Nations which he optimistically hoped would “inflame the American youth with a true love for their country.”’ The first rumblings of the industrial revolution produced a greater emphasis on economics (or political economy, as it wag called). Adam Smith’s famous but wordy and difficult *Robert S. Fletcher is .a member of the history department at Oberlin College, Oberlin Oho. This paper was read at the Indiana History Teachers Association session at the Thirtieth Annual Indiana History Conference at Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 11, 1948. 1Anna Haddow, Political Science in American Colkges and Uni- .t7er&ties, 1656-1800 (New York, c. 1939), 44-46, 65, 82n. 222 Indium Magazine of Histo~g Wealth of Nations continued to be studied, but gave way to, or was supplemented by, various new, American-made textbooks. Separate courses in political economy appeared in the early years of American protectionism following the War of 1812. Before the Civil War a speaker at a meeting of the Indiana State Teachers Association (then including at least as many college as public-school teachers) recommended that all Western institutions of collegiate grade provide for the teaching of political economy “on account of the simplicity of its facts and the breadth of its generalizations.”* The early textbooks in political economy were notable for the “breadth” of their “generalizations,” depending as they did chiefly on deductive reasoning. Something like an in- ductive process was more likely to be adopted in history because of the availability of more data. Frangois P. G. Guizot’s History of Civilization, translated from the French, was the most widely used textbook of this period, and its emphasis on the unity of western culture has had a long-term influence. Textbooks are important because of the dependence at that time on rote learning and the general use of the question- and-answer method of instruction. Some history texts even had the lines of type on each page numbered in the margin so that the exact wording could be assigned for memorizing. Students were not expected to use the library, though collections of books were maintained in all colleges for their amusement and amazement. A hundred years ago Indiana University bragged that its library contained five thousand volumes. Students who paid fifty cents a semester were allowed to take out one volume every Saturday. The Wesleyan University library at Middletown, Connecticut, had eleven thousand books and was open every Monday and Thursday for half an hour. The Bowdoin library was open three hours a week, the library at Williams, two hours. At the Univer- sity of North Carolina no effort was being made to get new books because the shelves were already ~rowded.~ But, despite the fact that the courses in history and the other social studies were few and poorly taught, they seemed so much more practical and more closely related to the world of everyday experience than the traditional classics, mathe- 2 W. M. Wightman, “A Course of Study for College,” Indiana School Joud (46 vols., Indianapolis, 1866-1900), V (1860), 80-81. 8Charles c. Jewett, Notices of the Publia Libraries in the United States of AmgTica (Washington, 1851), 8, 68, 148, 186. The Heroic Age of the Social Sciences 223 matics and philosophy that they shared increasing popularity with the natural sciences. The students showed a surer sense of the probable future trend of educational practice than most educators. And many young men got an education in college despite the barriers placed in their way. Francis Parkman was a bit remiss in preparing for and attending his classes at Harvard, but his wide reading along the lines of his hobby has made a lasting impression on the record of American historical literature. Many got their education in the social studies chiefly through their preparations for debates and orations at the meetings of the ubiquitous literary societies.* The mid-century saw the rise of college journalism, sponsored often by these same societies, and, therefore, other students entered the fields of the social sciences and of literature through the gateway of jo~rnalism.~ It was high time by the 1870’s that more educators got busy and caught up with their students. Meanwhile, in Germany a remarkable group of scholars was developing a more scientific approach to the study of man in society. Most American colleges had treated education as a process of pouring a fixed quantity of eternal truth into the heads of passive (and probably somnolent) youth. These Germans said that, as final truth was not fully known and never would be, higher education should consist of a continuing search for truth-a truth which would be a con- stantly changing synthesis of critical interpretations of data drawn from the careful observation of original sources. There had long been American scholars and teachers who had a similar conception, but they had refused to take their students into their confidence. Some of them struggled with the prob- lem of truth in the privacy of their studies, but then came forth with a more-or-less reasonable facsimile of a finished product which they insisted their students should accept on authority. The German Herr Professor proposed to take his students backstage, right into the workshop, and encourage them 4David Potter, Debating in the Colonial Chartered Colleges: An Histmica1 Survey, 1642-1900 (New York, 1944). SHerbert B. Adams wrote that his work on the Amherst student paper determined his life work. J. M. Vincent “Herbert B. Adams: A Biographical Sketch,” in Herbert B. Adam: !!‘bibUte o Fern&, Johns Hopkins University Studies in HiStol.ieal and Polaticaf Sczame (Balti- more, Maryland, 1883- ), Extra Vol. XX (1902). 224 Zndiana Magazine of History to learn the techniques and participate in the search. The tools to be used were: the seminar (a small class of co-operat- ing seekers for truth), the research library, and the formal lecture for the personal presentation of the latest, always- tentative synthesis. To speed the process by cross-fertiliza- tion, new discoveries were published in learned journals or as separate monographs, and the migration of students be- tween institutions was encouraged. Essential and most diff i- cult of all was the development of an attitude of unsparing and objective critical realism. In fact, the encouragement of this attitude was in itself a chief end of the new higher education. Throughout the mid-century most American college teachers were the products of graduate work in the divinity schools, where they received the best training available in the United States at the time. A scattering had studied abroad, but it was not until after Appomattox and Sedan that the great rush from the United States to the German universities took place. In the last quarter of the century some thousands of American young men drank the beer of Heidelberg, Halle, and Berlin, and some, though by no means all, felt the stimulation of that even headier brew, the new historical scholarship of the German lecture hall and seminar." As early as 1857, Andrew D. White began his historical lectures at the University of Michigan, where he thrilled the students of the leading Western state university with an echo of the new approach.? At Amherst by 1883 at least a third of the faculty had had some German training." Jeremiah Jenks came from Knox to Indiana to teach economics in 1889; he had a Ph.D. from Halle. William F. Allen, also German trained, taught history at the University of Wiscon- sin. He was the discoverer and personal sponsor of Frederick Jackson Turner. By the end of the eighties there was hardly a college in the East or Middle West without at least one Herr Doktor in some departmenLin philosophy, philology or the natural or social sciences. 8 Charles F. Thwin The American and the GmnUniversity: One Hundred Years of fhstorg (New York, 1928). 7 See quotation $0" Charles K. Adams in -Charles M. Andrews, "These Forty Years, Amel.ican HisWal Review (New York, 1896- ), XXX (1924-1926). 232. 8 Thomas Le'Duc, Piety and Intellect at Amherst College, 1865-191.2 (New York, 1946), 60. The Heroic Age of the Social Sciences 225 Wherever they appeared they introduced the formal lecture, a tool so effective in the hands of the scholarly, per- sonable, enthusiastic, and courageous, but so deadly when used by the lazy, the timid, the time-serving, and uninspired.

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