NEH chair launches initiative to make out-of-print outstanding books into free e-books

The tenth chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), William “Bro” Adams, announced a collaboration with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation called the “One Book Project,” which aims to give “second life to outstanding out-of-print books in the humanities by making them freely accessible to the public as e-books” at a National Press Club luncheon on Jan. 15.

He said this partnership is the “first collaboration of this kind with the Andrew Mellon Foundation.”

Adams also announced a Common Good initiative that denotes “both the right and obligation of citizens to debate the general welfare,” and is “central to democratic theory and practice,” Adams explained.

“As the title suggests, the purpose of this initiative is to engage humanities scholars and organizations with the complex issues playing out in our public lives, and to demonstrate the relevance and power of humanities in addressing those issues,” Adams said.

He added that the NEH had recently announced a “major” partnership with the American Library Association, supporting community programs nationwide on the theme of “Latino Americans: 500 years of History,” as part of an program to reach previously “under-served” segments of the society, called “The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square.”

“Millions of Americans” have felt the impact of the NEH, through various state humanities councils, NEH-supported libraries, historical associations, museums and the work of NEH-funded scholars, which include 18 Pulitzer Prize winners and 20 Bancroft Prize winners, said Adams.

The most significant accomplishment of the NEH has been the steady growth of “the "cultural capital" of the United States,” said Adams. “Without the endowment’s leadership, symbolic authority and singular commitment to the entire nations cultural legacy and capacity, our cultural foundations, which we all benefit from today, would be far less impressive and far less appreciated by the American people, and by many others around the world,” he explained.

Adams cited the importance of cultural capital through what he called “the cultural economy,” which is “hugely important” to thousands of communities around the country, and likely to increase in significance with the shift of the country’s economy from one based on manufacturing, to one based on “financial services.”

“More importantly, our democracy relies on the knowledge that citizens have of our political history, and the principles and values that history was built upon, and ensuring that this story is told, broadly and powerfully,” Adams said, calling it one of the “most important accomplishments of NEH.”

Since inception, the NEH has made approximate 71,000 grants, totaling about $5 billion, while also leveraging an additional $2 billion in private philanthropy, Adams said. The grants have supported teachers, scholars, libraries, museums and a host of other associations and historical sites in every state and territory in the United States, he added.