EARNING OUR HERITAGE:

an Introduction to the Humanities and theLanguage Arts, by Frank Earl Ward, Macalester College, Edmund H. Booth '18, Dartmouth College, and Grace J. L. May, Macalester College. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1937. Vol. I, 721 pp. Vol. 11, 637 pp. ed. $2.75.

The purpose of this textbook for use in Freshman English is indicated in the quotation from Goethe with which the authors preface their Foreword to the Student:Was du ererbt von deineii Vatern hastErwirb es, urn es zu besitzen.

They attempt, in other words, to present a survey of the humanistic tones of western Europe which have made our world what it is; and to provide a method by which students may use this material to learn how "to think and express themselves effectively."

The basis for the survey is an anthology of selections from ancient and modern literatures. The readings begin with Hardy's Return of the Native by way of easy introduction; include among other things, in the first semester's work, two Greek plays, six books of The Aeneid, several cantos of The Divine Comedy, Shakespeare's TheTempest, Milton's Samson Agonistes; in the second semester, various selections from the prose and poetry of the last three centuries, some chapters from Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class, several selections from the masters of the "new techniques in literature," and a group of modern essays. With the anthology as a basis the authors have provided twentyfour interpretative chapters to round out their picture of the modern world and its cultural origins.

So much for the "heritage." As the method by which the heritage may be earned the authors have worked out an elaborate system of class-room lectures, socialized recitations, individual reports, and additional readings. To many teachers this section of the book may seem too detailed and too rigidly organized but it is an integral part of the authors' plan and it seems to me that any teacher who was in sympathy with the purpose of the book would be able to adapt his teaching to the scheme without doing too much violence to his professional conscience.

It must be admitted, however, that teachers are the last of the rugged individualists and are quick to resent what may seem at first blush a rigid schematization of living literature and thought. Or at least any schematization that is not of their own contriving. I believe profoundly that the only real "integration" of knowledge or experience is that made by the student for himself. But Earning Our Heritage does not by any means preclude this sort of integration. The theoretical battle about courses which "integrate" has only begun and this is not the place to take up the cudgels for one party or the other. Integrating courses in the social sciences are now given at Dartmouth and at many other colleges. So far the humanities seem to have escaped, except in a very few institutions. But signs are not wanting that the humanities will have their turn. Earning OurHeritage is a pioneer attempt to provide a sort of novum organum for such a course.

For this reason greatest interest, in this book, will center upon the interpretative chapters written by the authors and the most I can do in the space at my disposal is to give some indication of the content of these chapters and the point of view of the authors. Part I is introductory and deals with "English as a Social Art." In this part are considered the techniques of reading and writing and studying, how to use the library, how to prepare a paper or report how to tackle a topic or a problem as a group. Part II is a discussion of the Greek Hebrew, Roman, Celtic and Teutonic contributions to modern life and the "mediaeval synthesis." Part 111 is largely concerned with the Renaissance in England and with Puritanism. Part IV discusses the political and scientific revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries and brings the story to America. Part V is entitled "Prolegomena to a World without Authority."

The title of Part V is fairly indicative of the point of view of the authors. They reject the aristocratic and authoritarian position and declare their faith in empirical science and democracy. They believe that it is the province of education and literature, dealing with words and ideas, to "recreate—even create—the dynamic illusions wherein humanity has realized its own worth and glimpsed its ultimate destiny." An acute critic has pointed out that this interpretation of the purpose of an "integrating" course can scarcely "commend itself to teachers whose own dynamic illusions conflict with such pyrrhonism, and it should not be imposed upon students as authoritarian truth in a 'world without authority.' "

Yet I believe there is virtue as well as weakness in this paradox. (The authors, incidentally, would probably disclaim any intention of imposing their point of view upon students; and the example of their eclecticism would tend, I should imagine, to encourage students toward eclecticisms and integrations of their own.) The authors obviously reject all totalitarianisms, ancient and modern, and this rejection is in tune with the racial and religious diversity, the "20th century multiplicity," the pragmatism, instrumentalism, and pluralism which are typically American. And these are still, despite the horrendous other "isms" of our time, living dynamic illusions for Americans. Nor do they preclude an "organic" life for the individual nor an "organic" society. Such, at least, I imagine, would be the belief of the authors of Earning Our Heritage.

I have wandered rather far afield from the book but the nature of this ambitious venture compelled at least a cursory examination of certain fundamentals. The book was obviously not tossed off in a few months. It is the product of long and careful thought and experimentation. It has been tested, the authors say in their preface, on over two thousand Freshmen during a period of ten years at Macalester College and of two years at Dartmouth. There is naturally much in the method, the material, and the presentation to which individuals may take intelligent exception. Nevertheless, it is a noteworthy attempt to achieve one kind of order out of the chaos of our heritage. I hope it will be widely used. And I hope it will encourage other teachers to undertake similar experiments. For, as Bernard de Voto has recently pointed out, the virtue of "the American system" is that it is not a system but a congeries of systems. To the authors of Earning Our Heritage should go the praise due all pioneers.

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