Then, this winter Assistant Professor of History Catherine Clinton--the only woman Americanist and the only expert on American women's history at the University--was blocked in her bid for a promotion to the level of associate professor. Together the three professors teach nearly one half of all the department's American history offerings.

Handlin defends the department's decision to reject these promotion bids. "Other universities have 30 to 40 historians permanently. They can take any old bum they want to, and they often do," he said earlier in the year. "We have a small group so we have to be a lot more cautious. Since there's a dearth of talent we have to go slowly."

Some historians have faulted chairman Laiou, who is a professor of Byzantine history, for not providing the department with strong enough leadership, and allowing the internal divisions to cripple the American wing. But Laiou calls such statements fiction: "This is a department where there are honest disagreements about any number of things, but that does not make for a crisis. As far as I'm concerned there is no crisis. My God, Robinson Hall is standing up beautifully. We've got all the measurable signs which are positive."

She attributes the Harvard department's success to high standards and wide vision of history. "We collectively have a concept of history that is rather broader than others which permits us to deal with analogies that move across time and space," she says.

Much of the criticism that Harvard's American wing has received from other members of the historical profession is the result of a general fondness for Harvard bashing, she says. "It's not difficult to find people around the country who find it easy to criticize a highly visible place," Laiou says.

But outside scholars argue that the department's problems have arisen because of some senior Americanists' feeling of "hubris" which has left the American wing immune to criticism, and out of touch with the rest of the profession.

As American history at Harvard struggles to regain the prominence it once had, the English department's wing is having difficulties of its own.

Porte calls the present situation in the department "screwball." He adds, "The preponderance of students are in the 19th and 20th century British and American literature. But we are very weak in American literature."

Next year, after Emerson expert and English Chairman Joel Porte leaves the University to accept a fulltime post at Cornell University next year, the department will have only one full-time Americanist on the faculty. Professor of English Sacvan Bercovitch, who was lured away from Columbia University in 1983, will have to hold down the fort alone next year. Ironically, he came to Harvard saying he hoped to lead a renaissance of the study of American culture.

Bercovitch was the last senior level Americanist appointed in the department until Visiting Professor of English Phillip Fisher, an expert in 19th and 20th century literature at Brandeis University, received and accepted an offer this year. Porte called this appointment "imperative."

But while the American wings of two of Harvard's largest departments were struggling to make new appointments in order to get back on track, the French wing of Harvard's Romance Langauges Department was suffering from a raid by a competitor on the West Coast.

Professor of Romance Languages Jean Marie Apostolides came to Harvard from Stanford University six years ago as an asscoiate professor. Apostolides received tenure two years later, but this year he announced he will return to Stanford to accept a lifetime post and possibly the chairmanship of that school's French and Italian Department. Apostolides's departure leaves the department without a scholar of French literature who is capable of placing literary texts in a cultural context.

Apostolides said earlier in the year that in addition to the opportunity to become chairman at Stanford, the greater affinity for the social sciences at the California school made the offer more attractive. "It is the vision of Stanford's department that we not reduce literature to a certain theoretical approach. We should be more open to influences from all the social sciences," said Apostolides, who holds a doctorate in sociology.

Harvard's Romance Languages Department has "a strong emphasis on linguistics and symbolism which is good, but a literature department should see farther than that," he said at the time. Professor of Romance Languages Susan Suleiman agrees that Harvard's department emphasizes theory. "The department is very interested in literary theory. Professor Apostolides has been especially interested in the relationship between history and literature, and it is true that other professors are not," she says.

According to Stanford's French and Italian Chairman Alphonse Juilland, Apoistolides will send Stanford into the first tier of French departments in the country. Juilland adds that he does not think Harvard is in "the top ten."