James Harvey Robinson


James Harvey Robinson was an American historian, who co-founded New History, which greatly broadened the scope of historical scholarship in relation to the social sciences. Jay Green concludes:

Biography

Robinson was born in Bloomington, Illinois, the son of a bank president. After traveling to Europe in 1882 and returning to work in his father's bank, Robinson entered Harvard University in 1884, earning his M.A. in 1888 before returning to Europe. After further study at the University of Strasbourg and the University of Freiburg, he received his Ph.D. at Freiburg in 1890, and began teaching European history at the University of Pennsylvania in 1891, moving to Columbia University in 1895–1919, becoming a full professor in 1895. He trained numerous graduate students who went on to professorships around the United States.
Following a series of faculty departures from Columbia in disputes about academic freedom, including that of his friend Charles A. Beard, Robinson resigned from Columbia in May 1919 to become one of the founders of the New School for Social Research and serve as its first director.
Robinson died in New York City.

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 of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, he was also an associate editor of the American Historical Review, and president in 1929 of the American Historical Association.

European history textbooks

Robinson's An Introduction to the History of Western Europe 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."

''The Mind in the Making''

Robinson's book The Mind in the Making: The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform, 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.

''The Human Comedy''

Robinson's last book The Human Comedy: As Devised and Directed by Mankind Itself contains his mature reflections on history after a lifetime of study.
From Chapter 1:
From Chapter 2:
From Chapter 9:

Works