The last century has seen two world wars, the hardships of the Great Depression, the birth of the civil rights movement, and the discovery of major scientific and medical breakthroughs. The ways that Yale University was shaped by -- and sought to influence -- these and other events and forces in the outside world during the last 100 years will be the focus of this year's William Clyde DeVane Lectures.
Titled "Yale and the External World: The Shaping of the University in the 20th Century," the DeVane Lectures will be presented beginning Monday, Sept. 7, by Gaddis Smith, the Larned Professor of History. The public is invited to attend the free lecture series, which also serves as a course in the history department and is open for credit to Yale students.
The series on "Yale and the External World" is being presented by the University as one of the "preview" events heralding the celebration of Yale's 300th anniversary in the year 2001. Smith's lectures will form the basis of a book that will be published by the Yale University Press in the fall of 2000 as part of Yale's tercentennial celebration. In conjunction with the University's 300th anniversary, Smith will also be revising and updating "Yale: A Short History" by the late University Historian George W. Pierson.
"The lectures and the book are not going to go minutely into purely internal issues, but will concentrate on the large issues that affected Yale's mission and goals, and brought about changes in its student body, faculty, research agendas, funding and governance," explains Smith, who has been designated as the William Clyde DeVane Professor for the fall term.
In each lecture, Smith will begin by offering an overview of
historic events or social movements occurring in the 20th century, and
will then turn the discussion to how these forces affected Yale, which was
emerging as a significant American research university during this era.
Related readings include two volumes of photocopied documents, primarily
from Yale's archives, which are now on sale at Tyco Copy Center at
262 Elm St. in New Haven; and Brooks Kelly's volume "Yale: A History,"
which is on sale at the Yale Bookstore at 77 Broadway, also in New Haven.
A listing of the individual topics in the DeVane Lectures series
appears in the box on page X. With two exceptions, the lectures will be
presented on Mondays at
4:30 p.m. in Battell Chapel, corner of Elm and College streets. The
lecture on Monday, Sept. 21 -- which coincides with Rosh Hashanah -- will
be held in Rm. 114 of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, corner of Grove
and Prospect streets; for those who cannot attend due to the religious
holiday, the lecture will be repeated at a time and place to be announced.
Also, because there are no Yale College classes on Monday, Oct. 19, that
week's lecture will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in Battell Chapel.
An expert in American foreign relations and maritime history, Smith is the author of six books: "The Last Years of the Monroe Doctrine, 1945-1993," "Britain's Clandestine Submarines, 1914-1915," "The Aims of American Foreign Policy," "American Diplomacy during the Second World War," "Dean Acheson" and "Morality, Reason and Power: American Diplomacy in the Carter Years." He was a senior consulting editor and major contributor to the four-volume "Encyclopedia of American Foreign Relations," and his articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and other general and scholarly publications.
Smith earned his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale in 1954 and 1961, respectively. He taught for three years at Duke University before joining the Yale faculty in 1961.
At Yale, Smith has served as director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS) 1989-95. He now chairs the International Affairs Council at YCIAS and directs undergraduate studies for the international studies major. He was also master of Pierson College 1972-81 and chair of the history department 1978-82. He was awarded the 1986 DeVane Medal for excellence in teaching from Yale's Phi Beta chapter and received the 1997 Mory's cup for service to the University.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Smith is a trustee of
Mystic Seaport Museum, the Society of Historians of American Foreign
Policy and other historical organizations. He was president of the
Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs 1994-95.
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