Letters to the Editor, December 1987

Correction

Dear Editor:

The brief obituary notice about Professor A. D. Momigliano which appears in the Octo­ber 1987 number of Perspectives describes him as an “internationally known professor of classics.” The position which Momigliano held for twenty-three years at University College, London, was the Grote Chair of Ancient History; he was not, strictly speak­ing, a Professor of Classics, unless this title was conferred on him at the University of Chicago. His important book Essays in Histori­ography might also have been mentioned. He did not, as far as I know, teach at Cambridge, but he did receive an honorary LittD from that university. But apart from this the notice suffers from a total inadequacy of scale, for it fails to convey to those who did not know him or his work that Momigliano possessed one of the greatest historical minds of the age.

Yours, sincerely,

J. R. Pole
St. Catherine’s College, Oxford

Little Election Interest

Dear Editor:

I am writing to suggest at least one answer (my own) to the mystery of why members of the AHA do not bother to vote in the organi­zation’s annual election. My reason is directly related to the absence of one key word in the description of scholarly affiliation for the many individuals listed as members of the Committee on Committees, the Nominating Committee, and the AHA Council; the word is “college.” As a faculty member at a liberal arts college, I believe that I have never been well represented in the governing bodies of the AHA.

I teach history, just like my university colleagues (although unlike many of them I have no readers to evaluate the exams and papers produced by my students). I too do research and publish (although my teaching load far exceeds that of many of my universi­ty colleagues). What I do not do, of course, is have graduate students to place or fellow­ships to award. In short, although I do the work of a historian, I do not have the political clout of a university historian, even within my own professional organization. Is it any won­der that I have little interest in an election to decide which professors from the nation’s large public and private universities will serve the organization?

Sincerely,

John M. Gates
The College of Wooster

Machiavelli and the US Constitution

Dear Editor:

The celebration of the Bicentennial of the Constitution offers an opportunity to dispel some of the myths surrounding that docu­ment and the Constitutional Convention.

The basic idea of a mixed type of govern­ment with a divided power arrangement, of checks and balances between three branches, of fragmented sources of power, adopted by the Convention in 1787 was not originated by its delegates; it was the brainchild of Niccolo Machiavelli in 1517. The several states had, on gaining independence, adopted constitu­tions based on this idea, beginning with the first suggestion by John Adams to Richard Henry Lee and George Whyte of Virginia in 1775 and 1776, and continuing to the adop­tion in 1779 by Massachusetts of a Constitu­tion that is very similar to the 1787 United States Constitution.

John Adams, more than anyone else, con­nected the Constitution firmly to Machiavelli. In his book Defense of the Constitution of the Governments of the United States (1787–1788), Adams credits Machiavelli and quotes from his Discourses and other works.

While, obviously, the experience of this new type of government was limited, it was apparently successful enough for the Con­vention seemingly to have pre-accepted it right from the start, spending the next five months in working out the details of the machinery that would make this type of government work where so many different viewpoints, fears, interests, and personalities existed.

This was no mean task and accomplish­ment. The hard compromises hammered out in resolving many issues gave proof of the wisdom, foresight, patience, and willingness to sacrifice of the delegates. The writings of Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, known as the Federalist papers, helped in achieving ac­ceptance of the new Constitution by the public. An examination of its contents and format reveals a similarity to Machiavelli’s Discourses that cannot be denied or hardly called coincidental.

A final ploy: Right from the start, the delegates wrote a new Constitution rather than amend the Articles of Confederation, as they were only authorized to do; the latter required unanimous approval of all thirteen states, something impossible at the time, whereas the new Constitution required only nine states for ratification.

None of this is new. It is time for the public to be informed and perceptions discontinued that do not conform to reality.

Sincerely,

A. J. Pansini
Waco, TX

Grants and Junior College Faculty

Dear Editor:

I would like to respond to a letter I re­ceived from the American Council of Learned Societies concerning the number of grants they award to faculty members em­ployed in junior colleges. Unlike the ACLS, I do not find nineteen applications from jun­ior college faculty members for its Grant-in­ Aid program for the period 1982–1986 an insignificant number. To use the ACLS’s data another way, nearly one-fourth of all who applied (472 out of 1,987) received a grant, yet none of the grants awarded by the ACLS during the past six years has been given to any person affiliated with a junior college. (There were no recipients in this year’s pool either.) Incidentally, someone—the AHA perhaps—needs to inform the ACLS that the junior colleges that are part of the University System of Georgia are neither community colleges nor private colleges.

When I decided to apply for an ACLS Grant-in-Aid, everyone from professors holding prestigious chairs at large universi­ties to my peers at other junior colleges here in the system advised me not to waste my time. Their observations were distressingly similar: my graduate degrees were from Southern schools and more damaging-I was employed at a junior college. My chances, they assured me, were nil. While I recognize that all junior colleges are not alike, I am pleased to inform both the AHA and the ACLS that 87 percent of those employed to teach history in the junior colleges of the University System of Georgia hold the PhD in history, not an EdD in Social Studies Education nor a PhD in higher administra­tion, and most are graduates of quite respect­able institutions.

Please do not misunderstand my letter. I have not said that I personally should have received a grant-in-aid. I have no way of comparing my application with others submitted. However, I am concerned—as I have been for many years—that I and my fellow professionals in junior colleges are being treated unfairly by the large foundations and the learned societies. These groups have been active in establishing seminars and workshops to help those of us working in junior colleges learn how to teach, but we already know how to teach. What we need is an equal chance at funded research opportu­nities.

By serious research, I do not mean count­ing the commas in the Magna Carta. My research efforts this summer alone took me to the British Library, the Fawcett Library, Hatfield House, the Crown Court Church of Scotland, Somerset House, St. Catherine’s, the Public Record Office, the Scottish Record Office, the National Library of Scotland, and Inveraray Castle. I also visited and inter­viewed the Fourth Earl of Balfour, the Dowa­ger Lady Fergusson, and the Reverend Ken­neth Hughes. Nor is this the first time that I have traveled abroad for research purposes. In the past ten years, I have made five trips to Great Britain and the Continent, three times pursuing sources relevant to my cur­rent project. I received financial assistance for none of these trips. I do not believe I am alone among junior college faculty members in undertaking such research.

I believe this matter should be of para­mount importance to professional organizations such as the AHA, for it strikes at the heart of your membership numbers. Faculty members at junior colleges can hardly be enthusiastic about paying dues to an organi­zation that helps fund programs which are of little benefit to us.

Any assistance that you can render histori­ans at junior colleges will be greatly appreci­ated.

Sincerely yours,

Joan B. Huffman
Macon Junior College