Oh, the Humanities
"The arts and the humanities belong to the people, for it is, after all, the people who create them." - Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965
The president of the United States is destroying the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a tiny federal agency that has existed since the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.
The defunding of state humanities councils, including in Idaho, is a pathetically short-sighted move. Even worse it’s part of a comprehensive effort by the administration to further “dumb down” a nation where Donald Trump condescendingly celebrates “the poorly educated.”
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Who cares, you might ask, if Elon Musk trashes a little federal agency that people who love history and anthropology value? And what are humanities anyway?
The NEH was created along with the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965 by an act of Congress. The legislation said, in part:
“An advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.”
The legislation passed with strong bipartisan congressional support because there was broad agreement with the kind of thinking embodied in the act.
“Democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens. It must therefore foster and support a form of education, and access to the arts and the humanities, designed to make people of all backgrounds and wherever located masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants.”
Those members of Congress were really “woke” back in 1965.
Lyndon Johnson signs the Arts and Humanities Foundations into law in September 1965 and hands one of the pens to the famous photographer Ansel Adams
Full disclosure: I served on the Idaho Humanities Council years ago, chaired the board for many years and also chaired the Federation of State Humanities Councils, the organization that represents the NEH’s state affiliates in Washington. In that capacity I testified – my only time doing so – before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee chaired by Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson. In those days Simpson was a big supporter of NEH (and the Arts), but that was pre-Trump. I can’t guess whether Simpson will oppose the administration’s budget chainsaw.
My brief remarks back then supported the tiny NEH budget, and I tried to provide a sense of how the Idaho Council – and other state councils – use their federal funding.
For decades, for example, Idaho has sponsored an annual institute for teachers who are provided a modest stipend to do a week-long deep dive into a big subject. The institutes offer mid-career opportunities for teachers to spend time, typically on a college campus, with other teachers learning more about subjects as diverse as Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the origin and importance of American roots music. The institutes feature fine scholars with deep understand of the subject on offer and the teachers leave the experience with new ideas about how to teach history, literature, religion, art history, law and philosophy.
State councils often sponsor traveling exhibits developed by the Smithsonian. Idaho has always tried to get those exhibits to rural communities in cooperation with local libraries or historical societies.
Councils, including Idaho’s, make small grants to scholars to help defray the cost of research often leading to an advance degree. Teacher can apply for a modest “incentive” grant to develop a class on a particular subject. The Idaho Council organizes a speaker’s bureau that matches speakers with local audiences, a service club, library of senior citizens center, for example. Former Idaho Lt. Governor David Leroy is listed as a current speaker.
A memorable part of my time on the Idaho Council were the annual lectures devoted to the humanities. The lectures began in Boise in 1997 when the celebrated historian of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Stephen Ambrose spoke about his book Undaunted Courage. The great David McCullough came to Idaho to talk about the importance of founding father John Adams. Novelist John Updike read some of his work before a packed house and insisted on visiting the old Idaho penitentiary during his Boise visit.
Because of the state humanities councils I really got to ask John Updike questions in front a crowd of a thousand Idahoans who attended for one reason - to be enlightened
It's worth noting that the law creating the endowments specify that the governor of each state with a humanities council appoints 25% of the board, which has meant for the last 30 years Republican governors have appointed pretty conservative folks to the board, many who have been involved in GOP politics. Typically board members are educators, community volunteers, business people and folks like me who love history and literature and enjoy the opportunity make meaningful humanities-based opportunities available to everyone.
My experience at the national level provided an opportunity to visit several state councils. The NEH has long required state councils to conduct reviews of their programs and have those programs evaluated by outside observers. I’ll never forget a trip to Jackson, Mississippi for a site visit to the Mississippi Council, where a superb state director, Barbara Carpenter, showed off programs ranging from the history of southern cooking to the state’s fraught racial history. Civility and respect for different views are always at the heart of these efforts.
And the NEH’s inspector general has always been something of a legend given the agency’s scrutiny of state council spending. This is not the place to search for waste, fraud and abuse. It just doesn’t exist.
So, why has the Trump Administration stopped all NEH grant funding to councils in Idaho and every other state? State councils are creating close to home educational and enrichment options for millions of Americans who have, for more than 50 years, enjoyed access to such a rich and broad menu of humanities programs. So why kneecap this very American institution dedicated to learning and civility?
Here’s the New York Times:
The moves at the NEH came a day after all employees at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, another independent federal agency, were put on administrative leave, setting the stage for a potential shutdown. That development drew widespread condemnation from public library supporters in particular, who noted that the agency, which has an annual budget of roughly $290 million, provided a third to half of the budgets of many state library boards.
I admit to being baffled by this action. Why? What constituency benefits? And remember these are dollars specifically authorized by Congress.
The most recent NEH budget was $207 million, less than the cost of three F-18 fighter jets. By contrast, the Washington Post recently calculated that Elon Musk’s various business entities have, over the last 20 years, pulled in $38 billion in federal funding.
So go our priorities.
I’m left to conclude the obvious – the administration is waging a war on intelligence and learning. How else to explain attacks on libraries, colleges, research, the Department of Education, and state humanities councils? No great nation has ever celebrated poor education or a lack of learning.
Sadly, oh so very sadly, we now do just that.
Thank you, Marc, for sharing your experiences and well-informed perspective on the NEH, an institution that you have provided service for, and one that has made a positive impact for cultural education in our country over many decades, at a relatively small cost. As a teacher, I benefitted from programs funded by NEH, and in the ‘90s was able to help develop a powerful humanities curriculum at the school where I taught. This loss is another sad day for America and one more reason for us to fight back.