Are the Humanities in Crisis? | Amanpour and Company

In the decade following 2008, the share of people in the U.S. graduating with bachelor's degrees in humanities dropped by a third. What's at play here, and why does it matter? Andrew Delbanco is a professor of American studies at Columbia University and the recipient of a National Humanities Medal from President Obama. He speaks with Michel Martin about the importance of reversing the humanities decline.

Originally aired on March 8, 2023

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Major support for Amanpour and Company is provided by the Anderson Family Charitable Fund, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III, Candace King Weir, Jim Attwood and Leslie Williams, Mark J. Blechner, Bernard and Denise Schwartz, Koo and Patricia Yuen, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Charitable Trust, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg, Jeffrey Katz and Beth Rogers, the Filomen M. D’Agostino Foundation and Mutual of America.

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Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

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[katiecole]

Michel Martin is thee very best interviewer; she allows the guest to give a detailed answer, and doesn't talk over her guest. And then she comes back with a thoughtful question in reference to what was just said. Love her!

[lauriecraw]

What an intelligent, eloquent and human man. Thanks for this interview

[neilifill]

Dr. Delbanco is right about the motivations of students. I’ve spent lots of time on college campuses and spoken with hundreds of students. Our education system doesn’t always encourage curiosity or enable critical thinking. So, students tend not to be motivated to think; they’re often more motivated to know. It’s not their fault, really. And given the current sociopolitical culture wars being propagated by certain leaders, we’re going even further away from critical thinking and moving towards blind, uninformed followership.

[rubberbiscuit]

It is refreshing to hear a rational adult speak.

[carolinestechschulte]

Great Interview! As an Honors graduate from UC Berkeley who read the classics and Joyce, I appreciate your focus on the Humanities. In the end we are all humans and need the support of other humans. Life is richer with love and friends and humanity: the interactions of humans. Love and humanity is the answer for everything.

[dr.debbiewilliams]

Professor DelBanco,
One of my son's and I just watched you on Story Television. Thanks so much for your contribution. I pray daily, and think you made sone very interesting and poignant points. Dear God, pkease have mercy on our souls.

[prof.jezebel]

English and the Humanities used to teach close reading and critical thinking and so Majors would go on into, and were valued in, all kinds of fields: law, business, politics, psychology, education, etc. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was an English Major. Then they instituted "professional programs" like Communications, Professional Writing, Social Work, and skip the critical thinking and close analysis work.

[judykinsman]

Wow. He sure made me think during that talk. Thank you so much! Another knocked out interview guys!

[huwpatt]

It's a crisis
when economic 'thinkers'
are devoid of humanity

[brooksrownd]

Colleges and universities have become overpriced vo-techs as more businesses refuse to invest in training young talent and more jobs require post-secondary degrees. People used to go to college to learn and think, but these days it seems most people only go to college to train for a fancy certificate.

[alanmcrae]

When I was in high school in the early 60's, my world history teacher had us debate the war in Vietnam. He put 2 tables on opposite sides in front of the classroom, one for the pro South Vietnam side and one for the pro North Vietnam side. Debaters had to provide their sources for any information used in their argumentation. This debate not only helped me to see the war more clearly, but it helped me to understand the importance of vetting the sources of my beliefs.

In my AP english class, when the teacher started using Shakespeare as our current reading list, some of us started mumbling the sentences in fake voices to emphasize how distant the literary style was from our contemporary culture. When the teacher asked us, we told her "we don't talk like that. Our problems are different, and more urgent, than those problems." She asked us what we would prefer to read & discuss. "The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Black Elk Speaks, Catch 22, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Fire Next Time, etc" was the class reply. To her credit, she let us read & discuss our picks of mostly contemporary works of immediate relevance.

My guess is that few high schools would allow this today, and by focusing on a classical curriculum institutions are increasingly perceived as being essentially clueless & out of touch - maybe even totally irrelevant when it comes to the problems faced by their students.

Financialization, globalization, outsourcing, downsizing, inflation, debt, climate change, violence, racism, misogyny, social media, surveillance capitalism, systemic corruption and growing autocracy are all combining to make an education a challenging proposition to the young. For teachers & administrators, it's their job and they need to navigate the increasing partisan politics that constrains what learning experiences they can offer.

STEM is the current secular religion, and it is the one area that can pay a decent salary to its high priests - when it isn't laying people off. The other is economics, for obvious reasons. The luxury of critical thinking that is essentially impotent in the face powerful & unnacountable economic & political forces is something that many young people simply can't afford anymore. They need a job that will pay the rent, put food on the table and pay down their enormous student debts.

In late stage capitalism, literature IS a hobby - sort of...

[gracevalentine]

When I taught high school junior English the students accepted my apology for the canon, the anthology we were assigned, because we connected the ideas we read to the quandaries we faced in our lives. It was a popular class.

[RidingEasttoWest]

Well they may be talking about the downfall of English but the real problem is the math. You can't put someone $50-$100k in debt to get a degree in English or history or philosophy so they can contemplate the meaning of life while making $15.50 an hour folding pants at Old Navy. Unless the cost of the degrees gets a lot cheaper or the job prospects and pay for people with these degrees gets a lot better, the economics just doesn't work.

[CRobinson]

You know, I watched this interview thinking I might be bored. It was amazing! I was so absolutely engaged that time just flew by. I was saddened and heartened at the same time. Thank you both for such an informative and insightful conversation.

[aggedyran]

What a fantastic interview! Michel Martin asks the more pressing and important questions, elucidating the very best of what Professor Delbanco has to say. As someone who works in higher ed, I learned something today that I can take back with me.

[thishandleistaken]

I was a middle school English teacher, my students read and wrote daily. I tried my best, but found it challenging to get kids interested in literacy, much less literature. They tolerated lessons with glazed over eyes, wishing to get back on to snapchat during the break. Most started the school year 1-3 grade levels below in fluency and comprehension. I had to teach them what an outline is and how to use it when writing essays, which is usually a 4th grade lesson. I also had to teach 5 international students the English language and grade level content in my 8th grade class. ⅓ of each class attempted plagiarism through the 2nd trimester, there were 2 transfers out of this private school into the public system and 1 suicide by the end of the school year. I have since left the profession for self employment which is 3 times the income for 1/6 of the time and energy and I don't have to worry about admin or parent support anymore. I wish I had a more inspiring story to relate. =-/

[ellenbruckermarshall]

Look at how journalists are under attack, education and university curriculum are under attack, and then weigh the need to pay off student loans beginning with graduation. Students today tell me they chose business finance or computer science in order to make money.
Some of these are actually passionate about history or literature.

[SamuelGriffin]

The income gap keeps getting larger. How can you expect people to study humanities when they can't even feed their family? I love the Humanities, but I'm too worried about taking care of my family financially.

[Ahmedkhan]

Excellent conversation. I worry about the ebbing of the humanities in our colleges and universities. The professor's anecdote about Purdue is encouraging, and I hope what Purdue accomplished can spread across the country. Some friendly advice from this Business Administration major: other than accounting and finance, avoid business school courses, opting instead for humanities, STEM, or anything but business school courses - they're a waste of time and one's tuition money.

[jaykay]

I'm so glad there are people like Andrew Delbanco working on this problem. One of the worst things I've ever learned is that nuclear science students at a top university were completely ignorant of the use of bombs in japan in WWII. They weren't taking humanities courses, only high-level science. And if anyone needs to know their history, philosophy and values, it's high-level nuclear scientists!