The Humanities and the Civic Imagination : Collected Addresses and Essays, 1978-1998

Veninga has long been active in state-level councils, primarily in Texas, developing models of how the study of history, literature, and culture can be infused into public life. His 29 essays consider the relationship of the councils to the National Endowment or the Humanities and the political arena, education, and the humanities and society. Book News, Inc., March 26, 1999 This collection of essays seeks to help readers understand why the humanities still matter and celebrates its author's 20-year tenure as Executive Director of the Texas Council for the Humanities (TCH). The collection is organized into three parts. Essays in each part are in chronological order. Part 1 includes addresses, essays, and congressional testimony that focus on the experimental nature of state council work, on the issue of public accountability, on the relationship of the National Endowment for the Humanities to the state councils, on the multiple roles of scholars engaged in public programs, and on the civic work of the councils. Readers will grasp the extent to which the TCH has been a part of a new national effort. Some of the essays in this part and in later parts show how the TCH responded to the so-called "cultural wars" of the 1980s and 1990s. Part 2 includes addresses and essays that reflect on the importance of the humanities to the education of active, responsible citizens. Several essays focus on public schools and on undergraduate education and the relationship of the university to society. Part 3 demonstrates the public uses of the humanities. Several of the essays reflect on finding unity in the midst of increasing pluralism. Other essays explore the relationship of the scholar to society, the role of the humanities in building community, and the capacity of the humanities to foster positive values and constructive traditions. (BT) For those who believe that the humanities in America are in trouble, suffering from over-specialization and never-ending intramural conflicts, this collection of addresses and essays provides much needed hope.

Since the early 1970s, state humanities councils, working under a congressional mandate, have developed models of how the study of history, literature, and culture can be infused into public life. Often countering trends that have dominated the humanities on campus, state councils have demonstrated through thousands of public programs that the humanities have the capacity to help foster a communal vision that can revitalize the public life of the nation.

'Collection of addresses and essays written during author's tenure as executive director of Texas Council for the Humanities'--Pref. This volume of collected addresses and essays, 1977-1997, is a testimonial to the vitality of a democratic ideal.