Area Studies

Fri, 10 May 1996 10:03:23 -0600, MDT
J B Owens (OWENJACK@FS.isu.edu)

On a lighter note (I just finished a quite demanding semester),
I submit this quote from the latest issue of *Lingua franca:
The Review of Academic Life* (May-June 1996).

The quotation is from Jacob Heilbrunn, "The News from Everywhere:
Does Global Thinking Threaten Local Knowledge? The Social Science
Research Council Debates the Future of Area Studies" (pp. 48-56).

"By the late 1960s, however, the excitement of nation building
had evaporated, and academic cooperation with the government was in
ill repute. Area studies continued, of course, but in a different
key. Scarred by the Vietnam War, scholars like Andre [accent on the
"e"] Gunderfrank [sic] began championing 'dependency theory,' or the
idea that American capital was exploiting Latin America and that
socialism would come to the rescue...."

I swear that I didn't make this up.

Jack

J. B. "Jack" Owens, Professor of History
Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209 USA
e-mail: owenjack@isu.edu
www: http://isuux.isu.edu/~owenjack