History and Literature

When General Education came to Harvard, it was a new idea for most undergraduates, but not all. Ever since the turn of the century, when it was founded by the late professor Barrett Wendell, the Committee on Degrees in History and Literature has quietly been practising its own brand of GE, which draws together two of the three fields of learning, and which stresses, as few other departments, the paramount general importance of a direct and personal tutorial training for all of its students.

History and Literature majors are all considered honors candidates, and it is no field for those whose scholastic ambitions stop at "gentleman's grades." Students who are willing to make the extra effort, however, find themselves rewarded by the advantages of a small, competent, and (agreeably contrasting to some other fields) interested tutorial staff, and a latitude in choice of courses and fields of study far greater than that in most other, more specialized departments.

By Centuries or by Countries

The field is sub-divided into countries and centuries, and a student can concentrate his minimum of eight courses in anything from the History and Literature of the Renaissance or of Greece and Rome to a study of American or English civilization. The degree he finally receives depends more on his senior thesis and oral exams than on his grades, however, since the department thinks a general knowledge of a field, pulled together in individual tutorial sessions, more important than the topics studied in isolated courses. A student meets his tutor once every two weeks as a sophomore, and every week as a junior and senior, taking "Tutorial for Credit" during his last year.

Last month, the History and Literature department suffered the greatest less possible in the death of its outstanding faculty member, Professor Matthiesses. Next year, several of its best tutors, such as Messrs. Holland and Levinson in the American field, will not be here. But personnel changes will not affect the general tenor of the field, which, under the chairmanship of Elliot Perkins, will continue its tradition of high standards and broad interests for undergraduates interested in both the social sciences and the humanities.