ABSTRACT
"Scholars and students can no longer afford to live in isolation", insisted the chairman at the organizing session of the American Historical Association. The cultivation of talent discouraged to some degree a quest for genius. The standards of craftsmanship for which Jameson spoke took on such importance in professional eyes that content could easily suffer at the expense of technique. The amateur historian, on the other hand, cherished his independence. The new school of Ph.D'.s, although quite self-conscious in the eighties, had not yet found its place in American culture. The rise of a professional outlook in the field of history was an integral part of a broad movement for the establishment of authority in American intellectual life. The American Philological Association made its debut in 1869. The degree of cooperation actually attained depended on the responsiveness of the amateur bodies to a professional spirit.
