Bruce A. Kimball, EdD
Director and Professor
School of Educational Policy & Leadership
Education
Ed.D. Harvard University, with distinction 1981
M.Div. Harvard University, magna cum laude 1978
B.A. Dartmouth College, summa cum laude 1973
Scholarly Interests
Professor Kimball is a historian and philosopher of education, and has long studied the development and nature of liberal arts education, including both the European and American traditions. After spending two years at Harvard Law School as a Liberal Arts Fellow, he began to study the history of professions and professional education in the United States and has pursued research on those topics more recently. He has held fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, Luce Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and American Council of Learned Societies. His publications have been honored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the National Education Association, and the American Society of Legal History.
Selected Publications
Books:
Bicentennial History of the Harvard Law School, 2 vols. (with Daniel R. Coquillette), (in preparation).
C. C. Langdell, 1826-1906: The Triumph and the Betrayal of Modern Professional Education (Forthcoming from University of North Carolina Press.)
Voices from the Liberal Arts Tradition: A Documentary History
(Forthcoming from the University Press of America for the American Association of Core Texts and Courses.)
The Condition of American Liberal Education: Pragmatism and a Changing Tradition,
edited by Robert Orrill (1995)
The 'True Professional Ideal' in America: A History, (1992, 1995).
Orators and Philosophers: A History of the Idea of Liberal Education, (1986, 1987, 1996). (Forthcoming in Chinese translation 2008.)
Edited Books:
Associate Editor for Education, American National Biography (2000).
Teaching Undergraduates: Essays from the Lilly Endowment Workshop on the Liberal Arts (1988)
Selected Essays in Liberal Theology 1975-85 (1985).
Chapters in Books:
"Christopher Columbus Langdell," Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law
(Yale University Press, forthcoming.)
"Colleges and Universities, 1754-1829," in Encyclopedia of the New American Nation (2005).
"Christopher Columbus Langdell," Encyclopedia of New England (2005).
"Christopher Columbus Langdell, 1826-1906," in Universal Jurists (2005).
"The Professional Ideal, 1950s," Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History (2001).
"Liberal Education," in Philosophy of Education: An Encyclopedia (1996).
"Rethinking Liberal Education for the 21st Century: A Historical Perspective"
in Rethinking Liberal Education for the 21st Century (1995).
"Naming Pragmatic Liberal Education," in Education and Democracy (1997).
"Curriculum History: Problems in Writing about Higher Education," in Curriculum History (1989).
Journal Articles
"Du Bois, Morgan, and the Harvard Graduation of 1890: 'Unworthy of a Great University'" (forthcoming Journal of African American History)
"The Ironical Exclusion of Women from Harvard Law School, 1870-1900."
Journal of Legal Education (2009)
"Langdell on Contracts and Legal Reasoning: Revising the Holmesian Caricature" Law & History Review 25 (Summer 2007): 345-399.
"The Principle, Politics, and Finances of Establishing Academic Merit as the Standard of Hiring for the teaching of law as a career, 1870-1900," Law & Social Inquiry 31 (2006): 617-648.
"Mr. Langdell's Emblematic 'Abomination': the Proliferation of Case Method Teaching, 1890-1915," History of Education Quarterly 46 (2006): 190-244.
"Law Students' Choices and Experience during the Transition to Competitive Academic Achievement,1876-1882," Journal of Legal Education 55 ([2006]): 163-207.
with Pedro Reyes, "The 'First Modern Civil Procedure Course,' As Taught by C. C. Langdell, 1870-78," American Journal of Legal History 47 (2005) 257-303.
"Professor Langdell, the Case of an "Abomination" in Teaching,"
Thought & Action 20 (2004): 23-38.
"The Langdell Problem: Historicizing the Century of Historiography, 1906-2000s."
Law & History Review 22 (2004): 277-337.
With R. Blake Brown, "'The Highest Legal Ability in the Nation': Langdell on Wall Street, 1855-1870," Law & Social Inquiry 29 (2004): 39-104.
With R. Blake Brown, "When Holmes Borrowed from Langdell: the "Ultra Legal" Formalism and Public Policy of Northern Securities (1904)." American Journal of Legal History 45 ([2003]): 278-321.
"Young Christopher Langdell: The Formation of an Educational Reformer, 1826-1854."
Journal of Legal Education 52 (2002): 189-239.
"Liberal Education, Liberalism, and Political Culture."
Perspectives, Association of General and Liberal Studies 20: 5-20; (2000)
with David C. Paris. "Liberal Education: an Overlapping Pragmatic consensus."
Journal of Curriculum Studies 32 (2000): 143-158.
"Warn Students That I Entertain Heretical Opinions, Which They Are Not To Take as Law: The Inception of Case Method Teaching in the Classrooms of the Early C.C. Langdell, 1870-1883." Law & History Review 17 (1999): 57-140.
"The Life of Langdell Has Not Been Logic; It has Been Experience."
Law & History Review 17 (1999): 155-159.
"The Meaning of 'Profession' in American Culture." Ethics at Emory 1 (1996):8-16.
"Two Views of the Academic Life: A Dialogue between Two Generations" with Elof Axel Carlson, Liberal Education 80 (1994): 5-15.
"The History of the Land-Grant Movement: the Irony that No One Cares."
Proceedings of the University of Minnesota Symposium on the Land-Grant University [Office of Professional Development and Continuing Education, University of Minnesota, 1992], 35p.
"The Liberal Profession of Teaching: Review Essay."
American Journal of Education 100 (1991): 106-118.
"Professions of Language and Reason," American Journal of Education 98 (1990): 251-70.
"The Educating Profession." Teaching Education 2 (1989): 100-3.
"The Education for Those Who Are Free: Essay Review."
History of Education Quarterly 28 (1988): 243-56.
"The Historical and Cultural Dimensions of the Recent Reports on Undergraduate Education." American Journal of Education 96 (1988): 293-322.
reprinted in ASHE Reader on the History of Higher Education (1989)
reprinted in ASHE Reader on the Curriculum of Higher Education (1990)
"The Problem of Teachers' Authority in Light of the Structural Theory of the Professions." Educational Theory 38 (1988): 1-9.
"The Inclination of Modern Jurists to Associate Lawyers with Doctors: Plato's Response in Gorgias 464-465." Journal of Medical Humanities and Bioethics 9 (1988): 17-31.
"The Ambiguity of Logos and the History of the Liberal Arts." Liberal Education 74 (1988): 11-15.
"The History of Professional Education: Essay Review."
Journal of Higher Education 59 (1988): 456-68.
"Legal Education, Liberal Education and the Trivial Artes."
Journal of General Education 38 (1987): 182-210.
"Liberal versus Useful Education: Reconsidering the Contrast and Its Lineage."
Teachers College Record 87 (1986): 575-587.
"The Training of Teachers, the Study of Education, and the Liberal Disciplines."
Educational Theory 36 (1986): 15-21.
"Writing the History of Universities: A New Approach?" Minerva 23 (1986): 375-389.
"Matthew Arnold, Thomas Huxley and Liberal Education: A Centennial Retrospective."
Teachers College Record 86 (1985): 475-487.
"Ideas No Dishonor to Experience: A Reply to Professor Gamson's `Liberating Education.'" National Forum for Honors Programs 15 (1985): 18-22.
"The Liberal Education Debate and Its Historical Appeals: Toward a Sorting Out and Appraisal." Liberal Education 69 (1984): 321-333.
"Founders of Liberal Education: The Case for Roman Orators Against Socratic Philosophers." Teachers College Record 85 (1983): 225-249.
"Criticism of Christian Theology by Japanese New Religions: Some Parallels
to the Criticism from American Religious Liberals." Religious Traditions 5 (1983): 62-90.
"Japanese Liberal Education: A Case Study in Its National Context."
Teachers College Record 83 (1981): 245-261.
"Liberal vs. Useful Education: Reevaluating the Historical Appeals to Benjamin Franklin and Aristotle." Liberal Education 67 (1981): 286-292.
"Theories of Restoration in Paul and Plato." Faith and Freedom 33 (1980): 131-143.
"The Problem of Epistemology in Japanese New Religions."
Tenri Journal of Religion 12 (1979): 72-93.
"An Historical Perspective on the Constitutional Debate over Affirmative Action Admissions." Journal of Law and Education 7 (1978): 31-48.
"The Origin of the Sabbath and Its Legacy to the Modern Sabbatical."
Journal of Higher Education 49 (1978): 303-315.
"Reinhold Niebuhr and John Dewey." Religious Humanism 11 (1977): 126-134.