Rise of the Humanists: Combating Liberal Internationalism at Yale and Dartmouth, 1930s and 1940s

• In Event: 70.027 - History, Ideas, and Theory in Education

Abstract

This paper examines a group of humanists at Yale University and Dartmouth College who rose to combat the emerging "global university" in the mid-twentieth century United States. These humanists, largely from the disciplines of history and literature, leveled powerful critiques of liberal internationalism in American universities. Specifically, they attacked the notion that social scientific methods could unite the world into a new order. I argue that this group blocked a more expansive and culturally-sensitive curriculum to come into fruition.

Author

• Bryan McAllister-Grande, Harvard University