Jim Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, spoke on “Defending the Liberal Arts” at the American Council of Learned Societies annual meeting in Washington recently.

Leach argued that “we need an infrastructure of ideas,” comparing humanities research networks to the interstate highway system.  “The humanities are America’s stock in trade. They’re an aspect that we shortchange at our peril,” he said.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on Leach’s remarks and on the issue of threats to the liberal arts.