James Harvey Robinson

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This article is about the historian and academician. For the American popular fiction writer who used the pseudonym, "Dr. J.H. Robinson", see Sylvanus Cobb Jr. For others named James H. Robinson, see James H. Robinson.
James Harvey Robinson
New School for Social Research
Spouse(s)Grace Woodville Read (maiden; 1866–1927) (m. September 1, 1887)

James Harvey Robinson (June 29, 1863 – February 16, 1936)

Charles Austin Beard, founded New History,[a] a disciplinary approach that attempts to use history to understand contemporary problems, which greatly broadened the scope of historical scholarship in relation to the social sciences.[2][3]

Biography

Robinson was born in

Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania. In 1895, he moved to Columbia University as a full professor, where he mentored numerous students who went on to become influential leaders in various fields, notably professorships around the United States.[4]

Following some departures of faculty from Columbia over disputes of academic freedom – departures that included his friend

New School for Social Research and serve as its first director.[6]

Robinson died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan. His body was interred at Bloomington, Illinois, in the Robinson family plot at the Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.

Notable works

New History

Through his writings and lectures, in which he stressed the "new history"—the social, scientific, and intellectual progress of humanity rather than merely political happenings, Robinson exerted an important influence on the study and teaching of history. An editor (1892–1895) of the Annals of the

James H. Breasted as President of the American Historical Association
.

European history textbooks

It may well be the men of science, not kings, or warriors, or even statesmen are to be the heroes of the future.

– Robinson & Beard (1907)[7]

Robinson's An Introduction to the History of Western Europe (1902, followed by several editions) was "The first textbook on European history which was reliable in scholarship, lively in tone, and penetrating in its interpretations. It revolutionized the teaching of European history and put a whole generation of history students and history teachers in debt to the author." (Harry Elmer Barnes)[8]

The Mind in the Making

Robinson's book, The Mind in the Making: The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform (1921), was a bestseller, introducing a generation of readers to the intellectual world of higher education. It argues for freedom of thought as essential to progress.[9] The book also postulated that people usually substituted rationalizations for reason.

The book and the New History movement itself was not without staunch critics. Classical scholar and foe to progressive treatises of history Paul Shorey (1857–1934), in a review of the book, declared:

I have no sympathy with academic superciliousness toward popular fiction, popular drama, or the popularization of the real sciences so far as this is possible. And if Mr. Robinson had exercised his undoubted gifts of vivacity and apparent lucidity in these fields, I would have been the last to cavil at the crudities and superficialities inseparable from all such endeavors. But he makes his appeal as a critical thinker and a lifelong student of history, and it is therefore fair to remind him of what, in spite of the complaisance of American reviewing, he probably knows – that in the judgment of those whom he once would have regarded as his peers he is fast forfeiting his claim to the title of historian by his reckless disregard of the warning historia scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probadum[10] [history is written in the narrative, not proven].

The Human Comedy

Robinson's last book The Human Comedy: As Devised and Directed by Mankind Itself (1937) contains his mature reflections on history after a lifetime of study.

  • From Chapter 1: "It is a poor technic when attempting to convert one's neighbor to attack his beliefs directly, especially those of the sacred variety. We may flatter outselves that we are undermining them by our potent reasoning only to find that we have shored them up so that they are firmer than ever. Often history will work where nothing else will. It very gently modifies one's attitude. Refutations are weak compared with its mild but potent operation. To become historically-minded is to be grown-up."[11]
  • From Chapter 2: "It is true that biologists have, many of them, given up what they call 'Darwinism'; they have surrendered Spencer's notion of the hereditary transmission of acquired characters, and they even use the word 'evolution' timidly and with many reservations. But this does not mean that they have any doubts that mankind is a species of animal, sprung in some mysterious and as yet unexplained manner from extinct wild creatures of the forests and plains."[12]
  • From Chapter 9: "And, with supreme irony, the war to "make the world safe for democracy," ended by leaving democracy more unsafe in the world than at any time since the collapse of the revolutions of 1848."[13]

Other selected works

Books

  • The Development of Modern Europe – An Introduction to the Study of Current History (coauthored with
    OCLC 1089721 (all editions)
    .
Vol. 1. Boston Ginn.
Vol. 2. Boston Ginn.
    1. "The New History".
      JSTOR 984033
      .
    2. "The History of History"
    3. "The New Allies of History"
    4. "Some Reflections on Intellectual History"
    5. "History for the Common Man"
    6. "'The Fall of Rome'"
    7. "'The Principles of 1789'"
    8. "The Conservative Spirit in the Light of History"
Breasted, James Henry (1865–1935). "Earliest Man – The Orient, Greece, and Rome".{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Robinson, James Harvey. "Europe From the Break-Up of the Roman Empire to the Opening of the Eighteenth Century".
Robertson, James Harvey; Beard, Charles Austin (1874–1978). "From the Opening of the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day".{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
→ London:
H.G. Wells) (1923). (link) (new and revised ed.) – via Internet Archive
.
→ London:
H.G. Wells
). The Thinkers Library, No. 46.
→ 1st impression (1934)
→ 2nd impression (May 1933)
→ 3rd impression (May 1940). (link) – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
→ 4th impression (September 1943). (link) – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
→ London & New York:
LCCN 39-2958
.

Articles

→ 1st ed.. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The New Era Printing Company. 1911. Retrieved July 16, 2021 – via HathiTrust.
→ Revised ed.. Jamaica, Queens: Marion Press. 1914. Retrieved July 16, 2021 – via Google Books.
→ 3rd ed., revised. Jamaica, Queens: Marion Press. 1915. Retrieved July 16, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
Translations and Reprints, History Department, University of Pennsylvania
Vol. 1, no. 1 (1894). "Early Reformation Period in England – Wolsey, Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More and Hugh Latimer". E.P. Cheyney (ed.). Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via Google Books → (alternate link 1 → alternate link 2). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); External link in |postscript= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Vol. 1, no. 3 (1894). "Restoration and Reaction". J.H. Robinson (ed.). Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via Internet Archive. → (alternate link). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); External link in |postscript= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
→ "The Reaction After 1815 and European Policy of Metternich" (revised ed.).
→ "The Restoration and The European Policy of Metternich (1814–20)". (4th ed.)
Vol. 1, no. 5 (1894). "The French Revolution". J.H. Robinson (ed.). Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via Internet Archive → (alternate link). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); External link in |postscript= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
→ "The French Revolution". (3rd ed.).
Vol. 2, no. 2 (1895). "The Naploeonic Period". J.H. Robinson (ed.). Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via Internet Archive. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
→ "The Naploeonic Period" (1895) (rev. ed.).
Vol. 2, no. 6 (1895). "The Period of the Early Reformation in Germany". J.H. Robinson & Merrick Whitcomb (eds.). Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via
OCLC 7851839 (all editions)
.
→ "Period of the Early Reformation in Germany" (1898). (5th ed.).
Vol. 3, no. 6 (1896). "The Pre-Reformation Period". J.H. Robinson (ed.). Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via Google Books → (alternate link). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); External link in |postscript= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Vol. 5, no. 2 (1898). "Protests of the Cour Des Aides – April 10, 1775". J.H. Robinson (ed.). English translation by Grace Read Robinson. Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via
OCLC 55495427 (all editions)
.

Reflections by other historians

Historian Jay Green, in 1999, stated:

From his innovations in historical methodology and research to his revisions of secondary and undergraduate pedagogy, Robinson endeavored to reform the modern study of history, making it relevant and useful to contemporary peoples. A quintessential Progressive, he combined astute in erudite thinking with a penchant for activism in order to challenge his professional colleagues' "obsolete" conception of history and to demonstrate written history's potential for inspiring social improvement.[14]

Jack Pole, an American history specialist from Britain, in 1972, skeptically remarked:

[S]everal of the major figures of the period, including

Osgood, Andrews, Morison, Wertenbaker, Miller and Nevins, writing history that would probably have been exactly the same if the New History school had never existed; and later commentators, so far from accepting the triumph of the New History, came to conclusion that, by at latest the end of World War II, its frontier of settlement had closed.[3]

Selected former students

Columbia College
, Columbia University (1895–1919)

Family

James Harvey Robinson – on September 1, 1887, in Bloomington, Illinois – married Grace Woodville Read (maiden; 1866–1927). They had no children. Robinson was a brother of botanist Benjamin Lincoln Robinson (1864–1935).[15] By way of Robinson's wife's sister – Isabel Hamilton "Delle" Read (maiden; 1858–1923), the second wife of John Lewis (1842–1921) – Robinson was an uncle to Read Lewis (1887–1984),[16] a lawyer who, among other things, in 1921 founded the Foreign Language Information Service and in 1940 co-founded the literary magazine Common Ground.

Bibliography

Annotations

  1. ^ The term new history is not to be confused with the French term nouvelle histoire (new history), as coined by Jacques Le Goff and Pierre Nora.

Notes

  1. ^ Britannica.com, 1999.
  2. ^ Barnes, 1927.
  3. ^ a b Pole, 1973, p. 222.
  4. ^ Harvard College, 1893.
  5. ^ New York Times, May 6, 1919.
  6. ^ Hendricks, January 1949.
  7. ^ Robinson & Beard, Vol. 2, 1907, p. 421.
  8. ^ Robinson, 1937, p. ix.
  9. ^ Robinson, 1921.
  10. ^ Shorey, March 17, 1923.
  11. ^ Robinson, 1937, p. 21.
  12. ^ Robinson, 1937, p. 23.
  13. ^ Robinson, 1937, p. 259.
  14. ^ Green, 1999.
  15. ^ Parsons, 1920, p. 536.
  16. ^ Wright, 1914.

References

News media

  • Newspapers.com
    .
  • TimesMachine
    .
Books, journals, magazines, and papers
Vol. 1. Boston Ginn.
Vol. 2. Boston Ginn.
→ London:
H.G. Wells) (1923). (link) (new and revised ed.) – via Internet Archive
.
→ London:
H.G. Wells
). The Thinkers Library, No. 46.
→ 1st impression (1934)
→ 2nd impression (May 1933)
→ 3rd impression (May 1940). (link) – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
→ 4th impression (September 1943). (link) – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
→ London & New York:
LCCN 39-2958
.

Genealogical archives

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to James Harvey Robinson.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Harvey Robinson.
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