Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities (The William G. Bowen Series)

A prehistory of todays humanities from ancient Greece to the early twentieth century Many today do not recognize the word but "philology" was for centuries nearly synonymous with humanistic intellectual life encompassing not only the study of Greek and Roman literature and the Bible but also all other studies of language and literature as well as history culture art and more. In short philology was the queen of the human sciences. How did it become little more than an archaic word? In Philology the first history of Western humanistic learning as a connected whole ever published in English James Turner tells the fascinating forgotten story of how the study of languages and texts led to the modern humanities and the modern university. The humanities today face a crisis of relevance if not of meaning and purpose. Understanding their common originsand what they still sharehas never been more urgent.