{"history":[],"article":{"id":"1ba5aa7d-0951-4ed4-9ffc-4d9e8f3eace1","title":"James Harvey Robinson","slug":"james-harvey-robinson","content":":::summary\n![James Harvey Robinson (c. 1922)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/James///Harvey///Robinson///-///May///1922///Harpers.jpg)\n**Name:** James Harvey Robinson \n**Birth Date:** June 29, 1863 \n**Birth Place:** [Bloomington, Illinois](https://bliptext.com/articles/bloomington-illinois), US \n**Death Date:** February 16, 1936 \n**Death Place:** New York City, US \n**Resting Place:** [Evergreen Cemetery (Bloomington, Illinois)](https://bliptext.com/articles/evergreen-cemetery-bloomington-illinois) \n**Alma Mater:** 1883–1884: Attended, Illinois State Normal College · 1887: A.B., Harvard · 1888: M.A., Harvard · 1890: Ph.D. University of Freiburg \n**Employer:** 1891–1895: U. Penn · 1895–1919: Columbia · 1919–1936: New School for Social Research \n**Spouse:** Grace Woodville Read (1866–1927) (m. September 1, 1887) \n:::\n\n# \n**James Harvey Robinson** (June 29, 1863 – February 16, 1936) was an American scholar of history who, with [Charles Austin Beard](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-austin-beard), founded New History, a disciplinary approach that attempts to use history to understand contemporary problems, which greatly broadened the scope of historical scholarship in relation to the social sciences.\n\n# Biography\nRobinson was born in [Bloomington, Illinois](https://bliptext.com/articles/bloomington-illinois), to James Harvey Robinson (1808–1874), a bank president, and Latricia Maria Drake (1821–1908).\nAfter traveling to Europe in 1882 Robinson entered [Harvard University](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-university) in 1884, earning his A.B. in 1887 and his M.A. in 1888.\nHe continued his studies at the [University of Strasbourg](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-strasbourg) and the [University of Freiburg](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-freiburg) and received his Ph.D. at Freiburg in 1890.\nIn the summer of 1891, Robinson was appointed Lecturer of European history at what then was called the [Wharton School of Finance](https://bliptext.com/articles/wharton-school-of-the-university-of-pennsylvania), [University of Pennsylvania](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-pennsylvania).\nIn 1895, he moved to [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university) as a full professor, where he mentored numerous students who went on to become influential leaders in various fields, notably professorships around the United States.\nFollowing some departures of faculty from Columbia over disputes of academic freedom – departures that included his friend [Charles A. Beard](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-a-beard) – Robinson resigned from Columbia in May 1919 to become one of the founders of the [New School for Social Research](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-school-for-social-research) and serve as its first director.\nRobinson died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan.\nHis body was interred at [Bloomington, Illinois](https://bliptext.com/articles/bloomington-illinois), in the Robinson family plot at the [Evergreen Memorial Cemetery](https://bliptext.com/articles/evergreen-cemetery-bloomington-illinois).\n\n# Notable works\n\n## New History\nThrough 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.\nAn editor (1892–1895) of the Annals of the [American Academy of Political and Social Science](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-academy-of-political-and-social-science), he was also an associate editor (1912–1920) of the [American Historical Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-historical-review), and, in 1929, succeeded [James H. Breasted](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-h-breasted) as President of the [American Historical Association](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-historical-association).\n\n## European history textbooks\nRobinson's An Introduction to the History of Western Europe (1902, followed by several editions) 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.\"\n([Harry Elmer Barnes](https://bliptext.com/articles/harry-elmer-barnes))\n\n## The Mind in the Making\nRobinson's book, The Mind in the Making: The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform (1921), was a bestseller, introducing a generation of readers to the intellectual world of higher education.\nIt argues for freedom of thought as essential to progress.\nThe book also postulated that people usually substituted rationalizations for reason.\nThe book and the New History movement itself was not without staunch critics.\nClassical scholar and foe to progressive treatises of history [Paul Shorey](https://bliptext.com/articles/paul-shorey) (1857–1934), in a review of the book, declared:\n\"I have no sympathy with academic superciliousness toward popular fiction, popular drama, or the popularization of the real sciences so far as this is possible. And if Mr. Robinson had exercised his undoubted gifts of vivacity and apparent lucidity in these fields, I would have been the last to cavil at the crudities and superficialities inseparable from all such endeavors. But he makes his appeal as a critical thinker and a lifelong student of history, and it is therefore fair to remind him of what, in spite of the complaisance of American reviewing, he probably knows – that in the judgment of those whom he once would have regarded as his peers he is fast forfeiting his claim to the title of historian by his reckless disregard of the warning historia scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probadum [history is written in the narrative, not proven].\"\n\n## The Human Comedy\nRobinson's last book The Human Comedy: As Devised and Directed by Mankind Itself (1937) contains his mature reflections on history after a lifetime of study.\n\n# Other selected works\n**Books**\n

\"The New History\".\n.

\"The History of History\"\n

\"The New Allies of History\"\n

\"Some Reflections on Intellectual History\"\n

\"History for the Common Man\"\n

\"The Fall of Rome\"\n

\"The Principles of 1789\"\n

\"The Conservative Spirit in the Light of History\"\n**Articles**\n\n# Reflections by other historians\nHistorian Jay Green, in 1999, stated:\n\"From his innovations in historical methodology and research to his revisions of secondary and undergraduate pedagogy, Robinson endeavored to reform the modern study of history, making it relevant and useful to contemporary peoples. A quintessential Progressive, he combined astute in erudite thinking with a penchant for activism in order to challenge his professional colleagues' 'obsolete' conception of history and to demonstrate written history's potential for inspiring social improvement.\"\n[Jack Pole](https://bliptext.com/articles/jack-pole), an American history specialist from Britain, in 1972, skeptically remarked:\n\"[S]everal of the major figures of the period, including Osgood, Andrews, Morison, Wertenbaker, Miller and Nevins, writing history that would probably have been exactly the same if the New History school had never existed; and later commentators, so far from accepting the triumph of the New History, came to conclusion that, by at latest the end of World War II, its frontier of settlement had closed.\"\n\n# Selected former students\n\n# Family\nJames Harvey Robinson – on September 1, 1887, in Bloomington, Illinois – married Grace Woodville Read (1866–1927).\nThey had no children.\nRobinson was a brother of botanist [Benjamin Lincoln Robinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/benjamin-lincoln-robinson) (1864–1935).\nBy way of Robinson's wife's sister – Isabel Hamilton \"Delle\" Read (1858–1923), the second wife of John Lewis (1842–1921) – Robinson was an uncle to Read Lewis (1887–1984), a lawyer who, among other things, in 1921 founded the Foreign Language Information Service and in 1940 co-founded the literary magazine [Common Ground](https://bliptext.com/articles/common-ground-magazine).\n\n## Annotations","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T21:30:06.599Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T21:30:06.599Z","search_vector":"'harvey':2 'jame':1 'robinson':3","search_content":" \n \n**Name:** James Harvey Robinson \n**Birth Date:** June 29, 1863 \n**Birth Place:** [Bloomington, Illinois](https://bliptext.com/articles/bloomington-illinois), US \n**Death Date:** February 16, 1936 \n**Death Place:** New York City, US \n**Resting Place:** [Evergreen Cemetery (Bloomington, Illinois)](https://bliptext.com/articles/evergreen-cemetery-bloomington-illinois) \n**Alma Mater:** 1883–1884: Attended, Illinois State Normal College · 1887: A.B., Harvard · 1888: M.A., Harvard · 1890: Ph.D. University of Freiburg \n**Employer:** 1891–1895: U. Penn · 1895–1919: Columbia · 1919–1936: New School for Social Research \n**Spouse:** Grace Woodville Read (1866–1927) (m. September 1, 1887) \n \n\n# \n**James Harvey Robinson** (June 29, 1863 – February 16, 1936) was an American scholar of history who, with [Charles Austin Beard](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-austin-beard), founded New History, a disciplinary approach that attempts to use history to understand contemporary problems, which greatly broadened the scope of historical scholarship in relation to the social sciences.\n\n# Biography\nRobinson was born in [Bloomington, Illinois](https://bliptext.com/articles/bloomington-illinois), to James Harvey Robinson (1808–1874), a bank president, and Latricia Maria Drake (1821–1908).\nAfter traveling to Europe in 1882 Robinson entered [Harvard University](https://bliptext.com/articles/harvard-university) in 1884, earning his A.B. in 1887 and his M.A. in 1888.\nHe continued his studies at the [University of Strasbourg](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-strasbourg) and the [University of Freiburg](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-freiburg) and received his Ph.D. at Freiburg in 1890.\nIn the summer of 1891, Robinson was appointed Lecturer of European history at what then was called the [Wharton School of Finance](https://bliptext.com/articles/wharton-school-of-the-university-of-pennsylvania), [University of Pennsylvania](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-pennsylvania).\nIn 1895, he moved to [Columbia University](https://bliptext.com/articles/columbia-university) as a full professor, where he mentored numerous students who went on to become influential leaders in various fields, notably professorships around the United States.\nFollowing some departures of faculty from Columbia over disputes of academic freedom – departures that included his friend [Charles A. Beard](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-a-beard) – Robinson resigned from Columbia in May 1919 to become one of the founders of the [New School for Social Research](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-school-for-social-research) and serve as its first director.\nRobinson died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan.\nHis body was interred at [Bloomington, Illinois](https://bliptext.com/articles/bloomington-illinois), in the Robinson family plot at the [Evergreen Memorial Cemetery](https://bliptext.com/articles/evergreen-cemetery-bloomington-illinois).\n\n# Notable works\n\n## New History\nThrough 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.\nAn editor (1892–1895) of the Annals of the [American Academy of Political and Social Science](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-academy-of-political-and-social-science), he was also an associate editor (1912–1920) of the [American Historical Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-historical-review), and, in 1929, succeeded [James H. Breasted](https://bliptext.com/articles/james-h-breasted) as President of the [American Historical Association](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-historical-association).\n\n## European history textbooks\nRobinson's An Introduction to the History of Western Europe (1902, followed by several editions) 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.\"\n([Harry Elmer Barnes](https://bliptext.com/articles/harry-elmer-barnes))\n\n## The Mind in the Making\nRobinson's book, The Mind in the Making: The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform (1921), was a bestseller, introducing a generation of readers to the intellectual world of higher education.\nIt argues for freedom of thought as essential to progress.\nThe book also postulated that people usually substituted rationalizations for reason.\nThe book and the New History movement itself was not without staunch critics.\nClassical scholar and foe to progressive treatises of history [Paul Shorey](https://bliptext.com/articles/paul-shorey) (1857–1934), in a review of the book, declared:\n\"I have no sympathy with academic superciliousness toward popular fiction, popular drama, or the popularization of the real sciences so far as this is possible. And if Mr. Robinson had exercised his undoubted gifts of vivacity and apparent lucidity in these fields, I would have been the last to cavil at the crudities and superficialities inseparable from all such endeavors. But he makes his appeal as a critical thinker and a lifelong student of history, and it is therefore fair to remind him of what, in spite of the complaisance of American reviewing, he probably knows – that in the judgment of those whom he once would have regarded as his peers he is fast forfeiting his claim to the title of historian by his reckless disregard of the warning historia scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probadum [history is written in the narrative, not proven].\"\n\n## The Human Comedy\nRobinson's last book The Human Comedy: As Devised and Directed by Mankind Itself (1937) contains his mature reflections on history after a lifetime of study.\n\n# Other selected works\n**Books**\n \"The New History\".\n. \"The History of History\"\n \"The New Allies of History\"\n \"Some Reflections on Intellectual History\"\n \"History for the Common Man\"\n \"The Fall of Rome\"\n \"The Principles of 1789\"\n \"The Conservative Spirit in the Light of History\" \n**Articles**\n\n# Reflections by other historians\nHistorian Jay Green, in 1999, stated:\n\"From his innovations in historical methodology and research to his revisions of secondary and undergraduate pedagogy, Robinson endeavored to reform the modern study of history, making it relevant and useful to contemporary peoples. A quintessential Progressive, he combined astute in erudite thinking with a penchant for activism in order to challenge his professional colleagues' 'obsolete' conception of history and to demonstrate written history's potential for inspiring social improvement.\"\n[Jack Pole](https://bliptext.com/articles/jack-pole), an American history specialist from Britain, in 1972, skeptically remarked:\n\"[S]everal of the major figures of the period, including Osgood, Andrews, Morison, Wertenbaker, Miller and Nevins, writing history that would probably have been exactly the same if the New History school had never existed; and later commentators, so far from accepting the triumph of the New History, came to conclusion that, by at latest the end of World War II, its frontier of settlement had closed.\"\n\n# Selected former students\n\n# Family\nJames Harvey Robinson – on September 1, 1887, in Bloomington, Illinois – married Grace Woodville Read (1866–1927).\nThey had no children.\nRobinson was a brother of botanist [Benjamin Lincoln Robinson](https://bliptext.com/articles/benjamin-lincoln-robinson) (1864–1935).\nBy way of Robinson's wife's sister – Isabel Hamilton \"Delle\" Read (1858–1923), the second wife of John Lewis (1842–1921) – Robinson was an uncle to Read Lewis (1887–1984), a lawyer who, among other things, in 1921 founded the Foreign Language Information Service and in 1940 co-founded the literary magazine [Common Ground](https://bliptext.com/articles/common-ground-magazine).\n\n## Annotations","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}