Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

Page 19 text:

The New Scholasticism What are the causes behind this general failure of the social scientists at Harvard? There is no single, simple ex- planation. The phenomenon is not limited to Cambridge although, I think, its origins may be discovered there as well as at any other institution. At the outset it should be noted that there are varying degrees of failure to be encountered here. The historians, for example, are sustained in their exertions by the rigid dis- ciplines of historical research. These disciplines seem to act as a kind of insurance against the absolute mediocrity of their product, so that in a sense no historian blessed with some GEORGE HOMANS BRUCE CAMPBELL HOPPER flssflvlflll' l'l'Uf NHU1' 'Pl S'N'lUlUl-U' Assoi-late l'rofi-ssor of fi0Yl'l'lllll4'Ili Q- K- M- KLUCKHOHN MORRIS BRYAN LAMBIE H l'l'Hl1'NN0l' Ur. flllllll'Ull l'U1N' l'x'nl't'sHm' of fiUYI'I'lllll0l1ii Dirt-r-Im' of lillibllllll li1'N!'lll'l'll fli-nli-r Dir, of lillfvllll of Rlunia-ipul lh-si-:irq-li CW' WILLIAM LANGER WASSILY LEONTIEF Cooliilgi- l'ruf1-ssor of llistury l'roI'4-asm' of l'lK'llll0llllK'S training and a modicum of conscience can be as bad as a bad political scientist. The economists, too, have their saving advantage in the form of economic theory and here Harvard is fortunate. No other institution in the world has, or probably has ever had, so distinguished a group of economic theorists assembled at any one time. But just as the disciplines ofhis- Jlwl Professor W. L. Crum, economic statistician, left Harvard last year for the University of California. Anthropologist Earnest Hooton wrote Why Mm Bvlmm' Lila' fffllif, Young M411 You Are Nowmzl. He measured hundreds of South Station travelers to develop the Hooton Coach Seat. Gaetano Salvemini, authority on the Italian Risorgimento, was once imprisoned by Mussolini. He retired in 1948.

Page 18 text:

i' we AA . M . , l I . but '.,., -g ,..A.,,, ...mmistp 4. . .. 1-' . , .2 Sumner Slichter is a nationally known economist and labor relations expert. He headed President Truman's fact-finding committee on the telephone strike last year. JOHN DUNLOP RUPERT EMERSON Associutu l'rol't'ssor of liuonomivs Professor of Government LOUIS I-IARTZ Warburg Professor of Economics Asst. Professor of Social Science Assistant Professor of Govcrnmc GOTTFRIED HABERLER OSCAR HANDLIN SIDNEY BRADSHAW FAY Professor of History, Emeritus Like a Boston Dowager Limiting our inquiry to the Harvard scene, the answer must necessarily be that, in their capacities as social scientistr, the Harvard faculty has done very little. As individual men of high intelligence, superior training, and unusual personal qualities, many of them have made very important contribu- tions both to the country and the University, and these con- tributions should certainly be duly noted. At the same time, the general tone of scholarly output has been respectable and, on the whole, the quality of their pedagogy-given the aban- donment of tutorial instruction and the rise of the super lecture-has been more than adequate. What has been lack- ing has been genuine intellectual creativeness, inquiry and discovery into the true nature of man and his institutions. In a time that cries for new ideas, or at least for a reclarification of old ones, Harvard social scientists have done little. Such strategic failure does not necessarily show up in undergraduate lecture courses, for a Harvard professor like a Boston dowager can live for a long time on his capital if he has to. Perhaps it need not worry the students at Harvard College in the short run falthough some of the more acute of our customers have commented upon it quite openly from time to timelj. In the long run however, it is a serious matter. Through such failings the social scientist reduces himself to the level of the radio commentator-a bit more cultivated perhaps, but also usually much less articulate. . 1 SHELDON GLUECK .RICHARD GOODWIN Professor of Criminology Assistant Professor of Economics PENDLETON HERRING ARTHUR HOLCOMBE nt Lecturer on Government Eaton Professor of Gfwermnont Cltcsigncd, 19473 i18l

Page 20 text:

torical research can prove stultifying to creative work and de- generate into something comparable in sterility to japanese court etiquette, so economic theory factually of course there are a number of them and doctrinal differences frequently break the academic quietj can in its turn sink to the level of a new scholasticism. Political Science QGovernment is the local word for itj is in a somewhat different situation. Political scientists are not limited by a common discipline or a frame of theoretical concepts. Individual political scientists may have such sustenance because they have been converted to their task after training in history or law. As a group, how- ever, political scientists are amazingly diverse in their origins and notably confused as to their mission. The proof of this lies in watching them at work. Variety is the keynote of their course offerings and variety has an appeal in a confused time. Undergraduate enrollment in Government has been very large, second only to Economics in the College as a whole. The Government Department purports to deal with the problems of power--and it takes little argument to convince young men that there are important problems. The Department is also blessed with a number of attractive platform performers, men of some learning, considerable oratorical ability and fin at least a few instancesj a kind of pedogical magnetism which, although rare, can be exceptionally effective. So the Govern- ment Department packs them in, purporting to treat important issues, always in an attractive way. But when we come to examine genuine intellectual contributions to the University and to society, the record is with a few exceptions sadly de- ficient. Whether this should be balanced against the very important practical contributions made by Elliott, Friedrich, Holcombe, and Fainsod and Emerson in the public service, or by Wild, Wright, and Hanford in the administration of the University is an interesting and open question. A More Sweeping Sense of Mission g The one deficiency which characterizes the social scien- tists as a group is the lack ofa sense of mission. It is not so much a lack of a sense of urgency about the fate of man as an absence of urgency about anything in the intellectual sphere. Here the historians are least vulnerable because they can rely on the discovery of the past almosr as an end in itself. The political scientists are the worst for they undertake to cover the most ground with the least preparation and the sketchiest technical equipment. The economists occupy a peculiar middle position, with some of them showing an interest in Seymour Harris from gives the General Education course in economics, is the Faculty's most prolific author. Among his latest books are How Shall We Pay for Eclucation and The European Recovery Program. Alvin Hansen Qcenlerj is one of world's leading economists. He was one of the architects of New Deal fiscal policies. Visiting Professor Herman Finer fbottomj taught British govern- ment and international relations at Harvard during the war. He is now at the University of Chicago. i20l