Lately, schools and colleges everywhere in the United States have been discarding studies in the humanities as if they were idle luxuries and excess baggage, according to noted editor and author Lewis Lapham. He argues this policy is ill-advised. Instead, Lapham suggests that no other set of studies is more necessary for realizing a future that doesn’t look like a Hollywood disaster movie.

Formerly editor of Harper’s, Lapham is now editor of Lapham’s Quarterly, a magazine of history and ideas that explores a single theme per issue, such as war, money, nature, and religion. The topic for the spring 2010 edition of Lapham’s Quarterly is arts and letters.

Lapham’s Quarterly will be available for sale.