Restoration News announced that Harvard professor James Hankins resigned, citing that no tenure-track positions in Western history have been filled at the university for the past decade. The resignation has drawn attention to trends in history education at Harvard and nationwide.
According to Restoration News, Hankins’ resignation highlights that no tenure-track hires have been made in Western fields for ten years, leaving him as the last teacher of Western civilization at Harvard. The article discusses his textbook, which includes moral judgments and presents history as practical wisdom, contrasting with modern value-free teaching. It attributes this shift to an anti-Western bias that leads to uncivilized outcomes by failing to defend Western studies.
Washington Monthly reported that no tenure-track historians specializing in Western fields have been hired at Harvard University in Massachusetts for a decade. This contributes to declines in humanities education, with the share of undergraduates majoring in humanities disciplines falling by approximately 25 percent nationally between 2012 and 2020. Similar trends are observed at elite institutions like Harvard, reflecting reduced interest in history amid broader enrollment shifts.
The American Historical Association reported a decline in undergraduate history enrollments in the United States by 2.7 percent during the 2022-23 academic year compared to the previous year. History degree completions fell by 6.43 percent in 2022, continuing a downward trend since 2016. These declines occurred even as overall undergraduate enrollments at four-year institutions increased by 0.6 percent in fall 2023.
Restoration News functions as an investigative news source under Restoration of America, focusing on education, immigration, and election integrity from a conservative perspective. It provides exposés on issues affecting traditional values and coordinates with America First groups to promote policy changes.
