ABSTRACT
Back in Boston, George Ticknor, now Harvard Professor of Belles Lettres, threw himself at once upon reshaping academic instruction in the image of the German university. His first object was to introduce the lecture method: “I began with the French and, in about two years, finished between fifty and sixty Lectures, equal in print to three good sized octavo volumes . . . ,” he proudly announced to Jefferson.1 Writing a lecture was a new thing. It meant making a survey of the available knowledge in a field and organizing it so that students could absorb the latest developments in their area of study. Apart from his attempt to introduce the lecture method singlehandedly, Ticknor relentlessly campaigned at Harvard for other innovations, e.g., voluntary attendance at lectures, the so-called “elective system,” a vastly improved library, and a sounder financial basis for the entire college. To that end, Ticknor even asked former President Jefferson’s help in petitioning Congress to revoke custom charges on book imports from Europe.
