Friday, February 9, 2007

Double-edged metaphor of the day

The Harvard Crimson says Harvard's new president will be Drew Gilpin Faust; the Globe, a bit more cautiously, suggests the same thing.

But the Crimson might want to rethink the lede of its story:

Drew Gilpin Faust, a Civil War scholar, will tackle a "reconstruction" of her own as the new president of Harvard -- bringing the University back together after the tumultuous tenure of Lawrence H. Summers.

Let's see. If you've read a book on Reconstruction written since 1985 or so, that analogy might suggest to you that the new regime will make some noble attempts at achieving justice, after Summers's foul depredations, but will ultimately be driven back by the forces of reaction, leaving progress at Harvard stalled, or worse, for a century.

If your knowledge of Reconstruction derives, however, from a high-school U.S. history class any time up to about 1990, you might think the Crimson is insinuating that Faust will employ shifty-eyed traitors and collaborators -- carpetbaggers from lesser universities like Bryn Mawr or Penn, her almae matres -- to stab honorable Harvardians like Harvey Mansfield in the back. But the forces of righteousness will, after a brief, humiliating spell, redeem fair Harvard -- and female scientists will, once again, be hired and tenured at the rate nature intended.

Either way, Reconstruction is a more potent metaphor than the editors may have grasped.

Posted by Christopher Shea at 11:07 AM

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