HUMANITIES AS FIELDS OF CONCENTRATION

A trail blazer in the movement to liberalize Harvard education from over concentration, the field of History and Literature has woven two subjects involving completely different disciplines together in such a way that it affords the best general study of civilization offered in college. Because of its broad base and interest in different approaches, it binds the concentrator with but few restrictions and permits him to take a wider variety of courses than any other field except perhaps the new area Social Science field. The reason for the success of the field lies in the excellence of the tutorial staff and this is one of the highest recommendations for choosing it.

At the same time the requirements for the field are fairly exacting. Divisional exams strike almost at once: in his Sophomore year a concentrator takes a three-hour Bible and Shakespeare; in the fall of Junior year, two thirty-minute orals on either Ancient or Modern authors and historians depending upon his special field; and in May of the Junior year a four hour qualifying exam if he expects to be an honors candidate. The first two sets of examinations are mostly chores and certainly should not be an obstacle to entering the field. The qualifying exam on the special field as a whole is prepared for by tutorial and courses taken. Success means the concentrator writes a thesis on a special branch of his field and takes an examination in this at the end of the Senior year. A more general examination is given to those not out for honors. While these are thorough requirements, they should drive no one away, for they are but little harder actually than those in a field like History. Nor should the halo which has surrounded the History and Literature department draw students in at the expense of other fields such as either English or History alone which may well offer as thorough an education.

Limited Special Fields

The special fields offered within History and Literature seem much broader than they actually are. The tendency in the main has been to concentrate on the history and literature of countries as a whole rather than centuries. Thus America and England have become far and away the leaders in number of concentrators with the 19th century third and all the others of comparatively minor importance. There are, however, advantages in a small field such as the 17th or 18th century in that a complete mass of material can be digested. Exactly what the future of these smaller branches of History and Literature will be, though, is at the present, highly speculative. The de parture of such men as Potter and Durand for instances has completely gutted the Renalssance field and their replacement are not immediately in sight.

The main criticism of courses in the department is that they lack the combined historical and literary approach the field aims to achieve. The burden of providing this and of correlating the work of the student falls on the tutors. They are trained in both history and literature and more tutorial is required than in any other field especially in Sophomore and Junior year. In the Senior year tutorial conferences about the thesis have been recently introduced and appear to be an excellent idea. The tutors chiefly recommend are Matthiesen in both England and America; Miller in America; Barbour in the Renaissance and Medieval period; Schlater in early England; Morize and Dur in the Romance Languages; Finley in the Classics. Gaps have been left in the tutorial staff by the departure of Pot- ter, Houghton and Durand, but on the whole the staff is very good.

The concentrator should be prepared to read much and to read it thoroughly with an eye to ideas and trends as well as facts. Thus it is advisable as an introduction to the field to take such survey courses as History 1 and English 1 and background courses in Philosophy, Fine Arts and Sociology. With a background made up of several disciplines the students is able to cope with the broad cultural approach demanded. At the same time Junior Divisionals make it imperative that the concentrator sink his teeth into the main meat of his special field during Sophomore year.

Generally speaking the History courses are considered better than the Literature courses. The charge most often leveled against all courses is that they fail to relate the facts to the cultural and economic background of the time. Thus History 32, an indispensable and brilliant course for a History major, is considered too factual with the emphasis on events rather than currents, and English 21 is unsatisfactory because it fails to emphasize social point of view.

English Field Thorough

In the English field History 19, 40, and 42 are the key courses. McIlwain, called by Frankfurter the scholar of Harvard, makes Constitutional history interesting; Merriman treats the Tudor period from a strictly historical approach which may seem outmoded to the Marxian historian, but which is not dull; Perkins and Owen carry on to modern times with Owen receiving most of the orchids. The basic English courses are 21, 30, 40, and 52. All of these are adequate but not inspiring. Sherburn, generally considered the greatest 18th century scholar is thought dull in his presentation; Jones is called diffuse and the course is criticized for not really focusing on the main works of the period. Two graduate courses are particularly recommended for investigation, English 190b and English 117b. Both are attempts to work out courses in History and Literature as a combined field, the first in the Literature of Democracy under a crack staff, and the second under Spencer in the transition from the Ranasssance.

U. S. History Good

In the American field 5, 60, 63, and 65b are essential for History. All are good well taught courses with particular plaudits going to Merk and Buck. On the Literature side Miller is the leading light and a very bright one. English 7 amounts to an intellectual history of the United States and fits perfectly into the field. English 70 is considered fair and all the 170's excellent particularly "a" and "d" under Murdoch and Miller. This is the most alive part of the whole field and claims the largest number of concentrators.

Space limits prevent treatment of each of the other special fields, although comments on courses in them will be found in other articles. In general Romance Languages are considered weak with the exception of Morize. German is good but has lost many brilliant men. To a very definite extent the department is becoming limited to its main fields, but this should not discourage would-be concentrators from exploring opportunities in the less emphasized branches. Further supplementary courses such as Levin's course on the novel and Taylor's on the Medieval mind should be worked into the plan of study where possible. For these courses see the other articles on English and History