Earlier this year Secretary of Education William J. Bennett called on the nation's colleges and universities to teach the "facts of American history" and "a systematic familiarization with our own Western tradition of learning."

When the Secretary made these remarks at Harvard, they were greeted with a mix of hisses and anger. But as the American wings of Harvard's English and History departments seem to be heading into disrepair, it seems fair to ask whether students can study the United States at Harvard?

American Studies is not the only field in trouble at Harvard. Other departments--such as Romance Languages and Sociology--have also struggled to deal with faculty shakeups and, in the case of Sociology, intra-departmental squabbles.

The History and English Departments have been the most noticeable, however, perhaps because of the large number of undergraduate concentrators in each one. The American field was hardest hit in each department. English Department Chairman Joel Porte admits that a student who wants to study America at Harvard is "in a tough spot."

Currently, the English and History departments are absorbing the first impact of what promises to be a large number of retirements as the professors tenured more than a quarter of a century ago approach retirement age. These retirements signal the end of an era of Harvard scholarship which has left both departments struggling to redefine their images while maintaining their reputations.

Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence says that it is not unusual for departments to experience a slew of retirements at once. "The problem is when you get a little behind, and then you have to put your foot on the accelerator. That's what happened in both History and English," Spence says.

While the History Department must make appointments simply to maintain a sufficiently staffed senior faculty, outside scholars have warned that the American wing of the Harvard history department is in "deep trouble" and has lost much of its influence in the academic world.

As one Americanist at another school says, speaking on the condition of anonymity, "When we see Harvard ranked as the number one department, we just laugh."

A department which once led the field is now seen by many American historians as a house divided, which is unable to make appointments and devoid of intellectual dynamism. Indeed, the last time an Americanist was given tenure was in 1980, and that was a joint appointment. Says one Harvard alumnus who is an Americanist at the University of South Carolina, "I felt I was much better off when I was there [more than 20 years ago] than students there today are."

The irony is that while the retirements are pressuring the department to make appointments, the older cadre of professors has been accused of being responsibile for the lack of tenures. Outside scholars say that the older Americanists, commonly referred to as the "Old Guard", have formed a kind of club which has served to prevent the infusion of any new blood into the department.

Yet President Bok, and Dean Spence say that the University will make appointments in American history soon. However, History Department Chairman Angeliki Laiou cautions that this does not mean "the whole of these appointments will be made in the next two months."

Professors attribute the wing's internal struggles to a split between the Old Guard--such as Adams University Professor Bernard Bailyn, Trumbull Professor Donald Fleming, and Loeb University Professor Emeritus Oscar Handlin--and more recently tenured Americanists such as Winthrop Professor of History Stephan A. Thernstrom, Warren Professor of American History David H. Donald, and Du Bois. Professor of History and Afro-American Studies Nathan I. Huggins.

The department now has serious gaps in its senior level coverage of new developments in American historiography, historians say. They point to the department's lack of a new left historian, an expert on the nation's most recent past, and a scholar in women's history.

"The great tradition at Harvard has been intellectual history and the Old Guard is more sympathetic to it. They're not hostile to social history, they aren't hostile per se to Black history, but they think of it, like women's history, as the property of interest groups," says one department member, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

After two of its popular associate professors--both experts in 20th century American political history--failed to receive tenure this year, the American wing came under intense scrutiny. The department rejected Associate Professor of History Bradford A. Lee. Although Dunwalke Associate Professor of History Alan Brinkley received the majority of his department's approval, Spence ended his tenure bid because he felt too many prominent senior department members had opposed the bid.