The Nation - News from Sept. 12, 1988

A growing number of Americans are buying books, visiting museums and joining cultural groups, but enrollment in college humanities courses has fallen drastically in the last 20 years, an independent government agency reported. The National Endowment for the Humanities report describes a “remarkable blossoming” of public interest in history, literature and the other humanities. Americans, who spent twice as much on sports events as on cultural endeavors 20 years ago, now spend more on culture--$3.4 billion, contrasted with $3.1 billion for sports in 1986, the report said. But, although the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded increased 88% in the last two decades, degrees in the humanities dropped 33%, it said.