James Harvey Robinson (1863–1936) was an American historian. One of the founders of the “new history,” he significantly broadened historical scholarship concerning the social sciences.
Born in Bloomington, Illinois, Robinson taught European history at Pennsylvania (1891–95) and Columbia (1895–1919.) He wrote highly acclaimed textbooks, collaborating with historian Charles Beard in The Development of Modern Europe (1907,) and published The New History (1911,) in which he called for history to reflect all of the human experience, including scientific, environmental, intellectual, cultural, and social concerns.
Robinson’s major work was a study of human understanding, The Mind in the Making (1921,) which proposed that educational institutions in general and historians in particular approach social problems with a more progressive and a livelier view toward a just social order.
Robinson also produced The Humanizing of Knowledge (1923,) The Ordeal of Civilization (1926,) and The Human Comedy (1937.)
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Each of us is great insofar as we perceive and act on the infinite possibilities which lie undiscovered and unrecognized about us.
—James Harvey Robinson
Greatness, in the last analysis, is largely bravery—courage in escaping from old ideas and old standards.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: Courage
We find it hard to believe that other people’s thoughts are as silly as our own, but they probably are.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: Thought, Thoughts, Thinking
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