# James Harvey Robinson

James Harvey Robinson (June 29, 1863 – February 16, 1936) was an American scholar of history who, with 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.

## Biography

Robinson was born in Bloomington, Illinois, to James Harvey Robinson (1808–1874), a bank president, and Latricia Maria Drake (maiden; 1821–1908). After traveling to Europe in 1882 Robinson entered Harvard University in 1884, earning his A.B. in 1887 and his M.A. in 1888. He continued his studies at the University of Strasbourg and the University of Freiburg and received his Ph.D. at Freiburg in 1890. In the summer of 1891, Robinson was appointed Lecturer of European history at what then was called the Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania. In 1895, he moved to 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.
Following some departures of faculty from Columbia over disputes of academic freedom – departures that included his friend Charles A. Beard – Robinson resigned from Columbia in May 1919 to become one of the founders of the New School for Social Research and serve as its first director.
Robinson died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan. His body was interred at Bloomington, Illinois, in the Robinson family plot at the Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.

## Notable works
### New History

Through 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. An editor (1892–1895) of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, he was also an associate editor (1912–1920) of the American Historical Review, and, in 1929, succeeded James H. Breasted as President of the American Historical Association.

### European history textbooks

   It may well be the men of science, not kings, or warriors, or even statesmen are to be the heroes of the future.
– Robinson & Beard (1907)
Robinson'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." (Harry Elmer Barnes)

### The Mind in the Making

Robinson'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. It argues for freedom of thought as essential to progress. The book also postulated that people usually substituted rationalizations for reason.
The book and the New History movement itself was not without staunch critics. Classical scholar and foe to progressive treatises of history Paul Shorey (1857–1934), in a review of the book, declared:
   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].

### The Human Comedy

Robinson'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.
* From Chapter 1: "It is a poor technic when attempting to convert one's neighbor to attack his beliefs directly, especially those of the sacred variety. We may flatter outselves that we are undermining them by our potent reasoning only to find that we have shored them up so that they are firmer than ever. Often history will work where nothing else will. It very gently modifies one's attitude. Refutations are weak compared with its mild but potent operation. To become historically-minded is to be grown-up."
* From Chapter 2: "It is true that biologists have, many of them, given up what they call 'Darwinism'; they have surrendered Spencer's notion of the hereditary transmission of acquired characters, and they even use the word 'evolution' timidly and with many reservations. But this does not mean that they have any doubts that mankind is a species of animal, sprung in some mysterious and as yet unexplained manner from extinct wild creatures of the forests and plains."
* From Chapter 9: "And, with supreme irony, the war to "make the world safe for democracy," ended by leaving democracy more unsafe in the world than at any time since the collapse of the revolutions of 1848."

## Other selected works

Books
* The Development of Modern Europe – An Introduction to the Study of Current History (coauthored with Charles Austin Beard) (1st ed.). New York: Ginn & Company. 1907. Retrieved July 16, 2021 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) LCCN 07-36724; OCLC 1089721 (all editions).
* Petrarch – the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters. (3rd impression) (1st ed.). G.P. Putnam's Sons – The Knickerbocker Press. 1909 [1898]. Retrieved July 14, 2015 – via Internet Archive. With the collaboration of Henry Winchester Rolfe (1858–1945){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) LCCN 16-6108 (2nd ed.); OCLC 643613304 (all editions).
* An Introduction to the History of Western Europe. Ginn & Company. 1903 [1902]. Retrieved July 14, 2015 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 02-23763; OCLC 717561 (all editions).
* The New History – Essays Illustrating the Modern Historical Outlook. The MacMillan Company. 1912. Retrieved July 14, 2015 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 12-5184; OCLC 614912 (all editions).
* Outlines of European History (Part I). Ginn & Company. 1907. Retrieved July 14, 2015 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 14-30277; OCLC 645050 (all editions).
* Outlines of European History (Part II) (revised ed.). Ginn & Company. 1918 [1907]. Retrieved July 14, 2015 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 14-30277; OCLC 645050 (all editions).
* History of Europe: Ancient and Medieval (with James Henry Breasted), 1920 online edition
* History of Europe: Our Own Times: The Eighteenth and Eineteenth Centuries: The Opening of the Twentieth Century and the World War (with Charles A. Beard). Boston: Ginn and Co., 1921 online edition
* The Mind in the Making – The Relations of Intelligence to Social Reform. 1921. Retrieved July 15, 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) OCLC 251290603 (all editions).
* The Ordeal of Civilization: A Sketch of the Development and World-Wide Diffusion of Our Present-Day Institutions (1st ed.). Harper & Brothers. 1926. Retrieved July 15, 2021 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 26-27483; OCLC 392259 (all editions).
* The Human Comedy – As Devised and Directed by Mankind Itself (introduction by Harry Elmer Barnes) (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Brothers. 1937. p. ix. Retrieved July 14, 2015 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 37-623 (1st ed.); OCLC 33050032 (all editions).
Articles
* "The Original and Derived Features of the Constitution of the United States of America" (inaugural dissertation). University of Freiburg. 1890. Retrieved July 16, 2021 – via Google Books. OCLC 251097060, 458065317, 601706752, 1073282942.
* Robinson, James Harvey (October 1890). "The Original and Derived Features of the Constitution". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 1 (2): 203–243. doi:10.1177/000271629000100203. ISSN 0002-7162. JSTOR 1008806. S2CID 144137664. OCLC 5546411901, 5723433640 (article).
* Robinson, James Harvey (September 1895). "The Tennis Court Oath". Political Science Quarterly. 10 (3): 460–474. doi:10.2307/2139955. ISSN 0032-3195. JSTOR 2139955. OCLC 5545334054, 4951155283 (article).
* "The Fall of Rome – Some Current Misapprehensions in Regard to the Process of Dissolution of the Roman Empire". An address read before the New England History Teachers' Association at Hartford. Boston: New England History Teachers' Association (publisher). April 27, 1906: 1–27. Retrieved July 14, 2014 – via HathiTrust. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) OCLC 24451003 (all editions).
* Robinson, James Harvey (1911). "Reformation, The" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). pp. 4–22. LCCN agr16000592 ; OCLC 3571848.
* An Outline of the History of the Intellectual Class in Western Europe. OCLC 10141764 (all editions).
* Robinson, James Harvey (May–August 1911). "The New History". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 50 (199). American Philosophical Society: 179–190. ISSN 0003-049X. JSTOR 984033. OCLC 7836150273 (article).
* Robinson, J. H. (July 28, 1922). "The Humanizing of Knowledge". Science. 56 (1439): 89–100. Bibcode:1922Sci....56...89R. doi:10.1126/science.56.1439.89. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 1647237. PMID 17781373. Retrieved July 14, 2015 – via Internet Archive. OCLC 5552131098 (article).
* "Civilization". Cast-iron to Cole. Encyclopædia Britannica – A New Survey of Universal Knowledge. Vol. 5 (14th ed.). London: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company, Ltd.; New York: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1929. pp. 735–741. Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 2901794 2-901794 (24 volume book set); OCLC 494104867 (all editions) (article).
* Translations and Reprints – From the Original Sources of European History. Philadelphia: Department of History, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press. New York: Longmans, Green. 1898–1899. Retrieved July 20, 2021 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) LCCN unk83018682, LCCN 04-35794; OCLC 56478266 (volumes 1 & 2), OCLC 20158026 (all editions).

## Reflections by other historians

Historian Jay Green, in 1999, stated:
   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.
Jack Pole, an American history specialist from Britain, in 1972, skeptically remarked:
   [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.

## Selected former students

* James Thomson Shotwell (1874–1965)
* Francis William Coker (1878–1963)
* Edmund H. Oliver (1882–1935)
* Clara Woolie Mayer (1895–1988)
* Edgar Wallace Knight (1886–1953)
* Harry Elmer Barnes (1889–1968)
* Katharine DuPre Lumpkin (1897–1988)
* Preserved Smith, (1880–1941)

## Family

James Harvey Robinson – on September 1, 1887, in Bloomington, Illinois – married Grace Woodville Read (maiden; 1866–1927). They had no children. Robinson was a brother of botanist Benjamin Lincoln Robinson (1864–1935). By way of Robinson's wife's sister – Isabel Hamilton "Delle" Read (maiden; 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.