Remarks by Chairman Bruce Cole,
National Endowment for the Humanities
To the American Academy for Liberal Education's
National Meeting, 2002

Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure and true honor to be here. I am an admirer of the work of AALE, and count many members of its board among my friends.

The work you do in rewarding rigor and depth in the liberal arts through the accreditation process is vitally necessary and all too rare. We applaud your commitment to core programs and high standards in liberal education, particularly when such standards have fallen out of fashion. Your accreditation is a hallmark of academic integrity and excellence.

The guiding principle and primary obligation of the NEH is to serve the American people. Our work is not the esoteric pursuit of the arcane, but the discovery and dissemination of knowledge vital to our citizens and country. A relentless focus on excellence, a reaffirmation of the necessity of the humanities, and a broader dissemination of humanistic thinking into non-academic life are, I believe, not only vital to the life of the humanities, but also essential to the civic life of our nation. Our founding legislation declares "democracy demands wisdom." To exist, our country needs educated and thoughtful citizens who can fully and intelligently participate in our government of, by, and for the people. The NEH was established precisely to foster the wisdom and knowledge essential to our national identity and survival.

Our task is to preserve and promote the best of traditional scholarship while incubating significant new approaches and interpretations, and then to diffuse the best of humanities scholarship, research, and programs to every segment of American society.

We believe the American people are served by a relentless focus on excellence. The NEH must continue to rigorously evaluate all proposals by the highest standards. I use the word "standards" deliberately. Strangely enough, there are some who think quality is contentious. But excellence should never take a back seat to academic fads.

We have instituted a renewed focus on the core functions of the Endowment -- namely, the preservation, cultivation, and dissemination of the best of Humanities research, scholarship, and public programs both on a national and state level. These core functions were the reason that the NEH was created, and the mandate it is charged with performing. They will be our priority.

Serving the American People

In our continuing efforts to strengthen the core programs of the NEH, we have kept in our minds the broader importance of our work. The humanities teach us about who we are. They show us where we've been, where we are, and provide a compass for the future. Knowledge of the humanities, then, is not mere luxury; it is a matter of necessity.

Indeed, the state of the humanities has broad implications for the state of our union. Our nation is under attack. The event of September 11 cannot be explained by realpolitik. We are in a conflict driven by religion, philosophy, political ideology, and views of history -- all humanities subjects. Our tolerance, our wealth and strength, our principles, and our liberties have made us targets. To understand this conflict, and ourselves, we need the humanities.

In some respects, the values implicit in the study of the humanities are part of why we were attacked. The free and fearless exchange of ideas, respect for individual conscience, belief in the power of education. . . all these things are anathema to our country's enemies. Understanding and affirming these principles is part of the battle.

Today, it is all the more urgent that we study American institutions, culture, and history. Defending our democracy requires more than successful military campaigns. It also requires an understanding of the ideals, ideas and institutions that have shaped our country. This is not a new concept. America's founders recognized that an informed and educated citizenry is necessary for the survival of a participatory democracy. James Madison famously said, "the diffusion of knowledge is the only true guardian of liberty." The humanities are, in fact, part of our homeland defense.

Unfortunately, Americans' knowledge of their history is sketchy to the point of scandal. One study of students at 55 elite universities found that over a third were unable to identify the Constitution as establishing the division of powers in our government, only 29 percent could identify the term "Reconstruction," and 40 percent could not place the Civil War in the correct half-century. In contrast, 99 percent could identify Beavis and Butthead and 98 percent knew gangsta rap star Snoop Dogg. Such collective amnesia is dangerous. Citizens kept ignorant of their history are robbed of the riches of their heritage, and handicapped in their ability to understand and appreciate other cultures as well. How are we to defend the idea of America when we don't know what it is?

We the People

To help Americans better understand their nation and world, we are launching a special initiative, "We the People," dedicated to bolstering the teaching of American history and culture. The "We the People" initiative will call upon humanities scholars, teachers, filmmakers, museums, libraries and other individuals and institutions to develop significant projects to enhance and expand understanding of the most significant events, themes, personalities and principles of our nation's history and culture. We will, of course continue to vigorously solicit proposals which help us understand the world around us, and how we fit into it.

This initiative will complement, rather than compete with, the core functions of the NEH. We will conduct it through the normal grant processes of our divisions and offices, and integrate it fully into the core functions of the Endowment. The peer review process is the jewel in the agency's crown, and our new initiative will fully adhere to its rigors.

Dissemination

While remaining true to our founding ideals, we will explore new means of promoting and disseminating the humanities.

Digital technology is a powerful tool, which helps us tot deliver and search massive amounts of information. It democratizes access to knowledge. Now, and even more so in the future, it will also help us to reconceptualize knowledge, to think of it in dynamic new ways. The NEH must play an active leadership role in promoting this new and exciting path to the understanding of the humanities.

Encouraging scholars to address the public, as well as fellow specialists can also enhance understanding of the humanities. Many of my colleagues have found their work channeled into narrow subspecialties expressed in technical, jargon-filled writing. While we welcome and encourage the fine-grained detail and deep knowledge that comes from highly specific studies, we must also seek ways to make such scholarly work understandable to a broader audience.

A first step is to encourage academics to use simple, clear language. I am not advocating the "dumbing down" of professional articles; indeed, it takes far more effort and intelligence to make complex concepts understandable to the lay reader than it does to couch them in such esoteric and ambiguous language as to be understandable only to fellow specialists.

Let me give you just one example. I received an email a couple of weeks ago, inviting me to a forum on Neo-Nationalism. The invitation beckoned me with the following description - and I quote: "This panel will address this hyphenated formation with attention to the present and historical (dis)articulations of the nation (as imagined community) and the state (as administrative apparatus). What are the conjugations of nation and sate in our own historical moment?. . ." And so it goes. As intriguing as this invitation was, I confess I did not attend. I still don't know what it was about.

Using simple, clear language will increase public interest in and comprehension of the best the humanities has to offer. And by making academic thought more accessible to the public, the wisdom of the humanities spreads wider and sinks deeper into the fabric of American thought. Institutions of higher learning, and their promotions and tenure committees, should encourage and not punish those who seek to make the results of their knowledge available to wider audiences.

We also want the NEH to support diffusion of the knowledge encapsulate in the great books, which are usually models of complex thought expressed in lucid, straightforward writing. There is a long list of texts, from many cultures and many voices, now recognized as canonical. These books have the potential to reach minds across specialties, cultures, and parochial barriers, no matter what their point of origin may be. A familiarity with these timeless works, old and modern, not only enhances our understanding, it enriches our lives.

I applaud you for your work, your dedication to the humanities, and look forward to working alongside you to ensure that the best of the humanities is valued, promoted, protected, and disseminated.