Hart, James Morgan b. November 2, 1839; Princeton, New Jersey d.April 18, 1916;Washington, D.C.

American philologist and author. Hart re­ceived a bachelor’s degree in 1860 and a master’s degree in 1863 from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Hart was one of the best-known nine­teenth-century American popularizers of university studies in Germany.

From 1861 to 1864 Hart studied law at the Georg August University of Gottin­gen and at the Friedrich Wilhelm Univer­sity of Berlin. In 1864 he took a doctorate in civil and canon law (JUD) from the former. After a return visit to Germany in 1872 and 1873, Hart popularized univer­sity study in Germany in his book Ger­man Universities: A Narrative of Personal Experiences (1874). Compared to the American college system, he held that “the German method of Higher Education is far above our own” (Hart 1874, vi—vii). Particularly with respect to legal educa­tion, he found much to praise in the Ger­man system, which he contrasted to the lack of system in the United States. The study of law in Germany was taken “seri­ously” and the profession could not just be “picked up” as in America (where law office study was the rule and university education the exception). The “whole ten­dency” of the German system was to de­velop “a body of enlightened, upright ju­rists, and to make the course of justice prompt and inexpensive” (Hart 1874, 112-114).

After his legal studies in Germany, Hart briefly practiced law in New York City and then, from 1868 to 1872, was as­sistant professor of modern languages at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. After further studies in Europe, Hart be­came chair of modern languages and En­glish literature at the University of Cincin­nati, where he served from 1876 to 1890. In 1890 he returned to Cornell and re­mained there until his retirement in 1907. Hart was a leader in his field. In 1895 he was the fifth president of the Modern Lan­guage Association of America (MLA). He then wrote English composition textbooks and campaigned for the improvement of teaching English in high school, particu­larly in New York City. In 1914 he moved to Washington, D.C., for his health, where he died two years later.

James R. Maxeiner

See also American Students at German

Universities; Gottingen, University of

References and Further Reading

Hart, James Morgan. German Universities: A Narrative of Personal Experiences. Together with Recent Statistical Information, Practical Suggestions, and a Comparison of the German, English, and American Systems of Higher Education. New York: G. Putnam’s Sons, 1874.

Jacklin, K., T Cuthbertson, and N. Dean. “Guide to the James Morgan Hart Papers, 1856-1916.” At http://rmc.library.cornell.edu (cited March 10, 2004).

Mezo, Richard E. “Hart, James Morgan.” In American National Biography. Vol. 10. New York: Oxford University, 1999, pp. 236-237.