Public Value of the Humanities

Jonathan Bate is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick, a Fellow of the British Academy and a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His books include Shakespeare and Ovid (1993); John Clare: A Biography (2003) - winner of the 2004 Hawthornden Prize and the 2005 James Tait Black Memorial prize for biography; The Genius of Shakespeare (1997); and Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare (2009). He was the editor of the Arden edition of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1995).

This book provides a top notch tutorial on the current states of humanities research in the UK.

• Introduction; Part One: Learning from the Past: The Long View Jonathan Bate; Fram, Trackers and Classics: Classical Scholarship and the Staging of Ancient Greek Drama Mary Beard; The Value of Archaeological Research Mike Parker Pearson; The Literary Heritage and National Identity Robert Hampson; Why Religious History Matters John Wolffe; The Value of Genoicide Studies Jurgen Zimmerer; 'This is a Local Film': The Cultural and Social Impact of the Mitchell and Kenyon Film Collection Vanessa Toulmin; Literary Research and the Conduct of Life: Nineteenth Century Debates on the Value of the Humanities Francis O'Gorman. Part Two: Looking Around Us: Architecture: Why Society Needs Researchers to Think About Building and the Built Environment Iain Borden; Architectural History: Research into Buildings and their Places Deborah Howard; Landscape, Environment and Heritage Stephen Daniels and Ben Cowell; Making a Home: English Culture and English Landscape Matthew Johnson; Accidental Haiku: The Educational Value of Thinking about Poetry and Landscape Together Catherine Brace; A Museum Perspective: The Centrality of Research to the Work of Museums and the Creation of Exhibitions Christopher Breward; 'All this Useless Beauty': The Hidden Value of Research in Art and Design Mike Press; 'Sorting the Sheep from the Sheep': The Relationship between Academic Research and the Creative Industries Richard Howells. Part Three: Using Words, Thinking Hard: Why Socio-Linguistics Matters April McMahon et al; Communication and Community: How Language Research May Contribute to Social Cohesion John Joseph; The Art of Evaluation: The Value of Literary Criticism Ronan McDonald; 'And Your Point Is...?' What is Anthropology and Why Does it Matter? Chris Gosden; Philosophy and the Quest for the Unpredictable: Why Society Benefits from the Sorts of Questions that Philosophy Asks Nicholas Davey; Bibliography; Index