The Origins of Literary Studies in America

Originally published in 1989, The Origins of Literary Studies in America brings together for the first time hard-to-find speeches, reports, and other writings by the founders of literary studies in the United States: Bliss Perry, Woodrow Wilson, Irving Babbitt, M. Carey Thomas, and many other scholars between 1874 and 1937.

The selections—on teaching, the MLA, and the goals of the discipline—are readable, accessible, often charming and amusing; what is most striking about them, however, is their resemblance to the debates over the crisis of American higher education. Gerald Graff and Michael Warner argue against the “myth of consensus”—a naive belief that the academic humanities until quite recently enjoyed a coherent agreement on their goals—popularized by such critical voices as Secretary of Education William Bennett, E.D. Hirsch, and Allan Bloom.

This remarkable anthology is a valuable corrective to twentieth century popular views of educational history and a work that broadens our understanding of professionalism within the academy.