Letters 7

Beginning of the Journey" (Modern Age, Spring 1995); "Lionel Trilling and the Critics," ed.John Rodden (Modern Age, Fall 2000).

Milton Bi rnbaum Professor of English Amer ican Internat ional College Springfield, MA

Trilling's Fatigue

To the editor, I was moved by Carol I a n n o n e ' s elo-

quen t discussion of Lionel Trilling's fa- tigue in dealing with the "barbar ians at the gate" (Winter 2001-02). The article is a tour de force, riveting and provocative, conveying bold truths that need to be said. My compliments .

J o h n Shepard Virginia

Dr. I annone responds, I thank J o h n Shepard for his kind re-

marks. Milton Birnbaum's idea that Trilling was

caught between two contradictory modes of be ing is actually similar to my own un- ders tanding of him, and I think pretty well verifiable f rom the evidence. I also believe that Trilling's d i lemma revealed something about the larger academy and how it re- acted to intellectual barbarism, but this can be stated only tentatively, barr ing a m u c h b roade r study, I would think.

Professor Olafson puts m o r e plainly what I prof fered in my article when I cited N o r m a n Podhoretz 's suggestion that Trill- ing f ea r ed losing respect , as h a d hap- p e n e d to Sidney H o o k when he j o i n e d battle with the New Left.

Thomas Drucker 's letter p r o m p t e d me to reread "Mind in the Modern World." The essay is brilliant and much of what Professor Drucker claims for it is true. But

Trilling's part icular defense of the acad- emy against the corrosive trends of affir- mative action and anti-"elitism" is couched in a larger medi ta t ion on the degrada t ion and mistrust o f the intellect in the mod- ern world. Tha t defense does therefore lose some of its poin tedness , especially since Trilling does not re turn to it again at the end of his essay but concludes instead only on the larger point.

Still, Trilling showed his customary pre- science, if also his t endency to ind i rec t language, when he wrote that " the re will be s e r ious a d v e r s e c o n s e q u e n c e s fo r the a c a d e m i c p r o f e s s i o n i f i t is re - q u i r e d to s u r r e n d e r an essen t ia l ele- m e n t of its t radi t ional best sense of itself, its be l ie f tha t no cons idera t ions ex t rane- ous to those of p rofess iona l exce l lence s h ou ld b e a r u p o n the se lec t ion o f its pe r sonne l , " as well as when he p r e d i c t e d that these " c o n s e q u e n c e s . . . will be felt n o t w i th in the a c a d e m i c c o m m u n i t y a lone bu t within the cul tural life o f o u r society as a whole."

It is clear that Trilling knew more than most what was really at stake, and thus his own failure to fight more vigorously stands out even m o r e sharply. I t seems especially ironic that he goes on to c o m m e n t in the same essay, "Surely it says m u c h abou t the status of mind in our society that the pro- fession which is consecra ted to its protec- tion and fur therance should stand silent unde r the assault [of the p roponen t s of affirmative action], as if suddenly deprived o f all r ight to use the powers of mind in its own defense."

National Dissertation Board

To the editor, Professor Warren Treadgold's ar6cle on

a c a d e m i c h i r i n g ( W i n t e r 2001-2002) makes some good points abou t the em- p loyment process. Biases and lack of in- fo rmat ion abou t the dissertation work or