The Humanities and the Civic Imagination

Book excerpt: For those who believe that the humanities in America are in trouble, suffering from over-specialization and never-ending intramural conflicts, this collection of addresses and essays provides much needed hope. Since the early 1970s, state humanities councils, working under a Congressional mandate, have developed important models of how the study of history, literature, and culture can be infused into the public life of the nation. Often countering trends that have dominated the humanities on campus, state councils, drawing upon the energies and resources of volunteer boards, professional staff, and public-minded scholars, have demonstrated through thousands of public programs--documentary films, conferences, readings and discussions, public issues forums, interpretive exhibits, oral histories, lectures, discussions, and workshops--that the humanities retain the capacity to help foster a communal vision that can revitalize the public life of the nation.