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The contemporary university is an uncomfortable amalgamation of ambitions once held by a variety of educational institutions. It owes debts to the philosophical schools of Ancient Greece and Rome, to the monasteries of the Middle Ages, to the theological colleges of Paris, Padua, and Bologna and to the research laboratories of early modern science. One of the legacies of this heterogeneous background is that academics in the humanities have been forced to disguise both from themselves and their students why their subjects really matter--for the sake of attracting money and prestige in a world obsessed by the achievements of science and unable to find a sensible way of assessing the value of a novel or a history book. The author dreams of an ideal new sort of institution which could welcome Montaigne, or indeed Nietzsche, Goethe, or Kierkegaard--a University of Life that would give students the tools to master their lives through the study of culture rather than using culture just for the sake of passing an exam. This ideal University of Life (which would be equipped with an elegant logo, cafeteria, and headquarters) would draw on traditional areas of knowledge (history, art, literature) but would angle its material toward active concerns (how to choose a career, conduct a relationship, sack someone, and get ready to die). The university would never take the importance of culture for granted. It would know that culture is kept alive by a constant respectful questioning--not by an excessive and snobbish attitude of respect. Students in the ideal University of Life would end up knowing much the same material as their colleagues in other institutions, they would simply have learned it under a very different set of headings. Too often, head-on assaults on the great questions are abandoned to the second-rate efforts of gurus and motivational speakers. The author contends that it is time for high culture to reappropriate them and to consider them with all the rigor and seriousness currently too often lavished on topics of minor relevance.

Suggests that the high dropout rate among first-year students in French universities is due in part to economic factors, which push some students into attending school when work is scarce. Differentiates between those who enter school to invest in the future and those who enter by default. (Contains 71 references.) (NB)

The article focuses on various meetings related to French history that will be held in 1974 and 1975. The Society for French Historical Studies will hold its twenty-first annual conference at the University of Wisconsin, Madison on April 11-12, 1975. The Western Society for French History held its second annual conference at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco on November 21-22, 1974. The fifth annual meeting of the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750 to 1850, will be held at Duke University on February 13, 14 and 15, 1975.

Reports developments related to French historical studies as of 1970-1971. Conference of the Society for French Historical Studies in Princeton, New Jersey on March 26 and 27, 1971; Recognition of Richard F. Kuisel as recipient of the William Koren, Jr. Prize for the best article on French history by an American or Canadian; Addition of three members-at-large to the Executive Committee of the Society of French Historical Studies on March 26, 1971.

The article addresses the issue of the downgrading of the subject of the Humanities in French and English secondary education. The author discusses the reasons behind the downgrading of the subject in the two countries. The author also illustrates that a change in the social exclusiveness of secondary education has created new forms of status differentiation which are themselves related to, and based in, changes in economic life as a whole. The author also gives the reason why this process seems rather more advanced in England than in France.