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Veritas

Harvard College and the American Experience

Andrew Schlesinger

When Josiah Quincy adopted the word veritas (meaning truth) as Harvard’s motto in the mid-nineteenth century, he saw the mission of the college as seeking new knowledge in order to come closer to God. It was a radical proposition. The imperatives of veritas are openness, freedom of thought, clash of opinions, resolution, truth-telling. In Veritas, Andrew Schlesinger traces some of the conflicts in Harvard‘s history between the forces of veritas and the inertial forces, the impediments to truth—sectarianism, statism, aristocracy, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, the "shackles of ancient discipline." With this theme in mind, Mr. Schlesinger tells the fascinating story of Harvard College as an American institution. He examines the important actions and decisions of its leadership from Puritan times to the present, and provides lively details of its college life since 1636. There was no guarantee that Harvard would become a great university. But the commitment to veritas compelled the institution to change in the face of new knowledge or cease to be. Mr. Schlesinger’s book is about how Harvard changed. The tale includes a great many familiar names: Cotton Mather, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, John Hancock, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Gould Shaw, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, Henry Adams, William James, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ada Louise Comstock, James Conant, John Kennedy. Mr. Schlesinger punctuates his narrative with a great many marvelous anecdotes: George Burroughs, Class of 1670, condemned as a witch and hung on Gallows Hill; the "Butter Rebellion" of the undergraduates; President Willard receiving a sack of coins from the Charles River Bridge toll as his salary; Teddy Roosevelt getting tipsy at his Porcellian initiation; the l939 Communist cell that included the future Librarian of Congress. The men and women who shaped Harvard and were shaped by it were in many cases fine writers, speechmakers, preachers, journalists, historians, correspondents, diarists, and memoirists, providing a high tone to the proceedings. The history of Harvard is the story of the quintessential American university. With 32 black-and-white illustrations.

Ivan R. Dee

Pages: 318 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-56663-636-0 • Hardback • May 2005 • $27.50 • (£19.99)

978-1-56663-731-2 • Paperback • March 2007 • $18.95 • (£14.99)

Subjects: History / United States / General, History / General

Veritas

Harvard College and the American Experience

Hardback

Paperback

Summary

When Josiah Quincy adopted the word veritas (meaning truth) as Harvard’s motto in the mid-nineteenth century, he saw the mission of the college as seeking new knowledge in order to come closer to God. It was a radical proposition. The imperatives of veritas are openness, freedom of thought, clash of opinions, resolution, truth-telling. In Veritas, Andrew Schlesinger traces some of the conflicts in Harvard‘s history between the forces of veritas and the inertial forces, the impediments to truth—sectarianism, statism, aristocracy, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, the "shackles of ancient discipline." With this theme in mind, Mr. Schlesinger tells the fascinating story of Harvard College as an American institution. He examines the important actions and decisions of its leadership from Puritan times to the present, and provides lively details of its college life since 1636. There was no guarantee that Harvard would become a great university. But the commitment to veritas compelled the institution to change in the face of new knowledge or cease to be. Mr. Schlesinger’s book is about how Harvard changed. The tale includes a great many familiar names: Cotton Mather, John Adams and John Quincy Adams, John Hancock, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Gould Shaw, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, Henry Adams, William James, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ada Louise Comstock, James Conant, John Kennedy. Mr. Schlesinger punctuates his narrative with a great many marvelous anecdotes: George Burroughs, Class of 1670, condemned as a witch and hung on Gallows Hill; the "Butter Rebellion" of the undergraduates; President Willard receiving a sack of coins from the Charles River Bridge toll as his salary; Teddy Roosevelt getting tipsy at his Porcellian initiation; the l939 Communist cell that included the future Librarian of Congress. The men and women who shaped Harvard and were shaped by it were in many cases fine writers, speechmakers, preachers, journalists, historians, correspondents, diarists, and memoirists, providing a high tone to the proceedings. The history of Harvard is the story of the quintessential American university. With 32 black-and-white illustrations.

Details

Ivan R. Dee

Pages: 318 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-56663-636-0 • Hardback • May 2005 • $27.50 • (£19.99)

978-1-56663-731-2 • Paperback • March 2007 • $18.95 • (£14.99)

Subjects: History / United States / General, History / General

Author

Andrew Schlesinger is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Class of 1970, and a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts. His forefathers were distinguished professors of American history at Harvard. As a writer, producer, and documentary filmmaker for ABC, PBS, CNN and elsewhere, Mr. Schlesinger has received two Emmy Awards, a Writers Guild Award, and a Christopher Award.

Reviews

It's impossible to think or write about the history of the United States without taking into consideration the immense role Harvard University has played in shaping our government and culture. In Veritas journalist Andrew Schlesinger shines a historian's light on this remarkable Ivy League institution. His impeccable scholarship, literary craftsmanship, and analytical savvy is inspired. Highly recommended.
— Douglas Brinkley, professor of history and director of the Theodore Roosevelt Center, Tulane University

Many have given their views on Harvard; few, if any, have surpassed this splendid account.
— John Kenneth Galbraith

Harvard and America have grown up together. Andrew Schlesinger's fascinating book traces that intertwined history and evolution brilliantly.
— Edward M. Kennedy, Senator

Well researched and highly readable, this book will benefit any academic library supporting programs in history and high education.
— Mark Bay; Library Journal

A spirited academic history sure to attract numerous nonacademic readers.
— Bryce Christensen; Booklist

Along with a knack for the occasional well-turned phrase, Schlesinger has an eye for the telling episode.
— Luther Spoehr; History News Network

Essential reading. . . . Deft use of apposite quotation and telling vignette enhance his remarkably rich narrative.
— Peter Skinner; Foreword Reviews

Andrew Schlesinger fills his Veritas with hundreds of anecdotes and vignettes linking Harvard to the nation's political and intellectual life.
— Michael Kenney, University of Pittsburgh and RPCV; The Boston Globe

Impeccable . . . Veritas is a compelling and relevant tale of Harvard's history.
— Matthew J. Kan; Harvard Crimson

Schlesinger's Veritas stands out in the crowd for its wit and lack of pretense about his alma mater.
— Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

Veritas

Harvard College and the American Experience

Andrew Schlesinger

Veritas

Harvard College and the American Experience

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