February 13, 2004

A Manifesto for the Humanities in a Technological Age

By CATHY N. DAVIDSON and DAVID THEO GOLDBERG

In a 2002 interview, the so-called global economic adviser Jeffrey D. Sachs insisted that interdisciplinarity was the only way to solve world problems. The need, he said, was "to focus not on the disciplines but on the problems and to bring together five main areas in an intensive dialogue: the earth sciences, ecological science, engineering, public health, and the social sciences with a heavy dose of economics." What was missing, of course, were the humanities and the historical,