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Paul Robinson : An Oral History

Paul Robinson, the Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, shares memories of his career in intellectual history and his time at Stanford. Robinson speaks about growing up in San Diego, his education at Yale, and his graduate studies in European intellectual history at Harvard. Turning to his career at Stanford, Robinson describes his approach to teaching and his research interests, including Freud, opera, sexuality, and autobiography. He also shares memories of his experience as an openly gay man living in San Francisco from the late 1960s to the 1980s.Growing up in San Diego, California • Coming from a family of educators • Reading The Wizard of Oz as a child and L. Frank Baum as a writer • Democratic parents in a Republican area • Political education and awareness in the late 1940s • Family migration to California and close relationship with grandmothers • Introduction to music and Catholicism through grandmothers • Memories of radio and television shows in the 1950s • Limited awareness of McCarthy hearings and Cold War as a youth • Early gay experiences combined with a lack of discussion about being gay • Gay life in the 1950s centering around specific urban areas, but not San Diego • Sex education • Decision to attend Yale University • Transition from San Diego suburbs to East Coast • Finding an intellectual community at Yale among graduate students and through Roman Catholicism • Deciding on an academic career in European history early in undergraduate years • Intellectual relationship with Catholicism • Rejecting the recruitment efforts of Opus Dei • Impact of Freud’s view of human nature in drawing him away from Catholicism • Performative elements of Catholicism • Interest in intellectual history • Teachers at Yale: Stanley Mellon and Martin Duberman • Fraught relationship with Duberman over Robinson’s analysis of his book Cures: A Gay Man’s Odyssey • Dealing with father’s death while a student at Yale • Relationship with his father • Impact of shifts in American society during the 1960s on his life • Graduate school at Harvard studying under H. Stuart Hughes • European History at Harvard • Comparing undergraduate and graduate studies • H. Stuart Hughes’ academic career and political activism • Deciding on left-wing Freudian intellectuals as dissertation topic • Interviewing Herbert Marcuse as part of dissertation • Turning dissertation into a book • Writing for the larger public as opposed to purely the academic world • Viewing Freud as a radical • Admiration for Freud’s writing • Teaching in Harvard’s Social Studies Program with Martin Peretz • Marriage and birth of first child • Getting job at Stanford through the old boy’s network • Starting a new life as a gay man in San Francisco • Continuing friendships with wife and first serious partner • Gay cultural scene and community in San Francisco in late 1960s • Gay restaurants • Assassination of Harvey Milk • AIDS epidemic • Stanford Department of History in the late 1960s: David Potter, Gordon Craig, Gordon Wright • Gravitating towards the older intellectual historians as opposed to younger social historians • Growth of the Department of History during the anti-Vietnam War protests • Lecture courses • Required Western Civilization course for Stanford freshmen • Teaching intellectual history • Including John Ruskin and Jane Austen in intellectual history courses • Collaboration with David Kennedy on comparative American and European intellectual history • Research on Freud and his critics • Deciding on subsequent projects by “following my heart” • Love of opera and beginning to write about opera as it relates to intellectual history • Changing views on Foucault • Writing about sex • Beginnings of history of sexuality as a field • Personal health struggles with hepatitis and liver disease in the late 1980s • Interest in autobiography • Studying and teaching autobiography • Seminar on gay autobiography • Adding movies to the seminar, including Brokeback Mountain and Call Me By Your Name • Changing the syllabus over time • Including trans autobiography in the seminar • Current interest in ways people have thought about animals • Writing his own autobiography • Being out at Stanford • Observations of gay activism at Stanford • Chairing the Humanities Special Programs • Debates around the Western Culture Program at Stanford • Thoughts on adding new voices to the canon, but continuing to build on the western traditions • Reflections on chairing the Department of History • Overseas study in Berlin • Service on the university’s judicial panel

Paul Robinson : An Oral History

Paul Robinson, the Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, shares memories of his career in intellectual history and his time at Stanford. Robinson speaks about growing up in San Diego, his education at Yale, and his graduate studies in European intellectual history at Harvard. Turning to his career at Stanford, Robinson describes his approach to teaching and his research interests, including Freud, opera, sexuality, and autobiography. He also shares memories of his experience as an openly gay man living in San Francisco from the late 1960s to the 1980s.Growing up in San Diego, California • Coming from a family of educators • Reading The Wizard of Oz as a child and L. Frank Baum as a writer • Democratic parents in a Republican area • Political education and awareness in the late 1940s • Family migration to California and close relationship with grandmothers • Introduction to music and Catholicism through grandmothers • Memories of radio and television shows in the 1950s • Limited awareness of McCarthy hearings and Cold War as a youth • Early gay experiences combined with a lack of discussion about being gay • Gay life in the 1950s centering around specific urban areas, but not San Diego • Sex education • Decision to attend Yale University • Transition from San Diego suburbs to East Coast • Finding an intellectual community at Yale among graduate students and through Roman Catholicism • Deciding on an academic career in European history early in undergraduate years • Intellectual relationship with Catholicism • Rejecting the recruitment efforts of Opus Dei • Impact of Freud’s view of human nature in drawing him away from Catholicism • Performative elements of Catholicism • Interest in intellectual history • Teachers at Yale: Stanley Mellon and Martin Duberman • Fraught relationship with Duberman over Robinson’s analysis of his book Cures: A Gay Man’s Odyssey • Dealing with father’s death while a student at Yale • Relationship with his father • Impact of shifts in American society during the 1960s on his life • Graduate school at Harvard studying under H. Stuart Hughes • European History at Harvard • Comparing undergraduate and graduate studies • H. Stuart Hughes’ academic career and political activism • Deciding on left-wing Freudian intellectuals as dissertation topic • Interviewing Herbert Marcuse as part of dissertation • Turning dissertation into a book • Writing for the larger public as opposed to purely the academic world • Viewing Freud as a radical • Admiration for Freud’s writing • Teaching in Harvard’s Social Studies Program with Martin Peretz • Marriage and birth of first child • Getting job at Stanford through the old boy’s network • Starting a new life as a gay man in San Francisco • Continuing friendships with wife and first serious partner • Gay cultural scene and community in San Francisco in late 1960s • Gay restaurants • Assassination of Harvey Milk • AIDS epidemic • Stanford Department of History in the late 1960s: David Potter, Gordon Craig, Gordon Wright • Gravitating towards the older intellectual historians as opposed to younger social historians • Growth of the Department of History during the anti-Vietnam War protests • Lecture courses • Required Western Civilization course for Stanford freshmen • Teaching intellectual history • Including John Ruskin and Jane Austen in intellectual history courses • Collaboration with David Kennedy on comparative American and European intellectual history • Research on Freud and his critics • Deciding on subsequent projects by “following my heart” • Love of opera and beginning to write about opera as it relates to intellectual history • Changing views on Foucault • Writing about sex • Beginnings of history of sexuality as a field • Personal health struggles with hepatitis and liver disease in the late 1980s • Interest in autobiography • Studying and teaching autobiography • Seminar on gay autobiography • Adding movies to the seminar, including Brokeback Mountain and Call Me By Your Name • Changing the syllabus over time • Including trans autobiography in the seminar • Current interest in ways people have thought about animals • Writing his own autobiography • Being out at Stanford • Observations of gay activism at Stanford • Chairing the Humanities Special Programs • Debates around the Western Culture Program at Stanford • Thoughts on adding new voices to the canon, but continuing to build on the western traditions • Reflections on chairing the Department of History • Overseas study in Berlin • Service on the university’s judicial panel

Opera and ideas : from Mozart to Strauss