University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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(professor QJSernarb s year ' s Blue and Gold has a portrait of Professor Bernard Moses as a frontispiece. The Editors believe that it will interest those who know the high position held by the Professor among America ' s historical scholars to know, also, something about the way in which that position has been won. As the foundation for his subsequent work was chiefly laid during n s student days in Germany, we will begin with a brief review of his studies there and an outline of the state of historical science at that time. To the student of History and Politics, Germany offered many attractions in 1870. History was making on a large scale. A new national life was awakening and was soon to find expression in a new Empire. The study of history had just attained new dignity and strength, after passing through a period of transformation lasting thirty years. A new school of historical scholars, who had been ripened among the stirring events from 1848- ' 70, had now won full recognition in the German Universities. There were such great men as Mommson, Droysen, Treitschki, Ranke, Burckhardt, Voigt, Roth, Waitz, Lepsius and others. Historians were no longer mere antiquarians and romancers as of old. They were scientific investigators, seeking in the records of the past the causes and rational principles by which to understand the present. History was conceived of as the study of the evolution of society. The study of Political Economy, too, had acquired new life. The Historical School founded by Roscher in 1843, now controlled the Universities. These men refused to consider Political Economy, as it had been before their day, an abstract science. They believed that every phase of economic life should be studied in the light of its setting, in its own time and country, and in accord with these views, the whole science was being remodeled. In 1870 the founders ) Born August 27, 1846, at Burlington, Ct. Educated at: the High School, Bristol, Ct., Wesleyan Academy, Mass , the University of Michigan, l866- ' 7o. Student of History, Political Economy and Archeology at Leipzig in Saxony, Berlin in Prussia, in Sweden, and at Heidelberg on the Neckar, where he was given the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1873. Teacher: First experience, at 16 years of age, in a district school, for a short time. Professor of History and English, at Albion College in Michigan, for three months. Professor of History and Political Economy, at the University of California since 1875.

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GENTLE READER: The Blue and Gold of ' p 5 is before you. Its faults are many, but we ask you to overlook them. We do not lay claim to literary immortality; as a book for and by the students, the editors have endeavored to render it interesting to all the students of the University and to their many friends. Our function of criticism has been employed wher- ever we thought it necessary, but remember that our aim has been to amuse and that we bear malice toward none but good will toward all. The selection of material for the ' ' Miscellany has been a difficult task and we have probably made many mistakes. We hope, however, that you will find nothing to your distaste. Kind reader, we will not detain you longer, but leave you to wander through the book as fancy dictates, hopittg only that you will be able to glean from its pages something both good and useful. 6

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of this school were still in their prime. Among them were Roscher, Knies, Hildebrand. Held and Nasse. These historians and economists drew students from all over the world. Among the contemporary students of our Professor were many who have since won eminent distinction, both in this country and in the different countries of Europe. The foundations for his subsequent work were certainly laid under the most auspicious circumstances. The names of Treitschki and Knies on his Doctor ' s diploma, obtained in Heidelberg in 1873, testify to his connection with these notable scholars. To describe Professor Moses ' work since that time is, in a way, to trace the manner in which he has moulded and developed the ideas that he received from these men. We have space for but the briefest outline. While Professor Moses ' work has been in many different departments of History and Political Economy, perhaps the two fields in which he has obtained widest recognition are Comparative Constitutional History and Spanish American History. It was on these two subjects that he lectured at the Chatauqua Summer School last season. The latter of these subjects, to which his attention was, doubtless, drawn by his early removal to California, has been the occasion of several trips to Europe, especially to Spain, and to Mexico, and is the one at present chiefly occupying his attention. On that subject he is regarded as one of the authorities. The scientific character of his work in this line makes things look very different from the fairy tales of Prescott or the undigested accumula- tions of Hubert Bancroft. As a writer and teacher he is very careful to maintain a strict scientific attitude. He never allows himself, nor any of his students, to be influenced by a personal subjective view or to confuse for a moment what ought to be or what he might like to find, with what is. A single quotation from his book on Politics well illustrates this. He says: But we must be careful to draw the line between what the state is, or, under given circumstances, must be, and what the state should be, and should do. In Political Economy his method is a combination of that of the English School with that of the German Historical School. He naturally acquired under such teachers as Roscher and Knies a preference for the inductive method, but he has not followed the lead of his teachers in this direction so far as they were inclined to go. In view of the great results accomplished by the English School he has not been inclined to discard altogether their more abstract methods. His thought is, therefore, to carry the a-priori method as far as it can be safely carried, guarding carefully the conclusions obtained by this method by refer- ence to the peculiar circumstances of each country and each age. His philosophy of History, if he were to formulate one, would probably be that of continual evolution. This is very well illustrated by his work on