ABSTRACT
In 1978, the Rockefeller Foundation invited thirty-two scholars, academic administrators, and representatives of foundations, the media, the arts, and business to assess the “place and prospects” of the humanities in the United States. The report assigns “highest priority” and its first ten recommendations for action to “the humanities in the schools” (elementary and secondary): “Our public schools are the only means for [preparing] all young men and women for participation in a democratic society”—and the humanities, the report finds, have much to do in this connection that has so far been left undone or done badly. Graduate education in the humanities, the report confirms, is in trouble: there is scanty support for students, and there are few jobs for them when they complete their degrees. The deficiencies found in the humanities thus appear gratuitous, matters of chance or forgetfulness—and one need not have a conspiratorial view of the past.
