As a young boy growing up in Greenwich Village, New York, Daniel Levine knew at the age of eight that he wanted to teach. Now years later, he has fulfilled his childhood aspiration.
Levine, who was granted tenure in 1972, is currently the longest-tenured member of the faculty. Levine has been at Bowdoin since the 1963-64 academic year when he started as an assistant professor of history with a salary of $8,500. For the last 31 years, he has been the Thomas Bracket Reed professor of history and political science.
Though as a child, Levine wasn't sure where he wanted to teach, over the years, he came to form his employment criteria.
"When I was in graduate school I said, only partly in jest, 'When I go to a job I would like skiing in the winter, sailing in the summer, and the New York Times on the same day it's published.'"
Bowdoin has certainly provided Levine, researcher of the welfare state, with what he wanted in an institution. He also admits that Bowdoin's proximity to Sugarloaf has helped.
Geographical amenities aside, Levine readily acknowledges that "Bowdoin is a very benign employer, a very good place to work. It's very supportive...so, it's a very satisfactory place to teach too...I've been very pleased with Bowdoin." In a complimentary tone, he adds, "The students are very good now, much better than they were when I came."
Throughout his teaching career, Levine has sincerely wanted his students to understand history.
"I desperately want students to learn about the stuff that I'm teaching about. You don't know history to know the future, it doesn't help you on the future?but you know history to know the present. And I want students to begin doing that."
Yet, for Levine, studying and learning history does not only mean absorbing material, but questioning.
"I also want to develop a skepticism in the students. I want people to be skeptical about sources and about authority...don't accept authority." And while Levine wants to teach skepticism, he adds that students should "question, except if I'm the authority."
To put skepticism into a formal academic setting, Levine once taught a course entitled "Interpretations of American History." Not a typical history course, this one had students do multiple readings about each time period. Each reading had a different, unique historical view. Levine wanted his students to decipher each view, "find out who makes a convincing case, who doesn't, [and] why do they make the kind of case they do."
Countless graduates have certainly felt Levine's teaching effects. One alum, now a University of Chicago Law School professor, has told Levine that since taking Interpretations of American History, he has never read anything without the skepticism he learned in that course.
Levine's academic contributions to the Bowdoin community continue well beyond his hopes of instilling skepticism in his students.
As a young professor, Levine was single-handedly responsible for introducing African-American history (originally named "Negro History") to the course catalog.
Prior to his action, "there was no such thing as Negro history at Bowdoin, and there was no such history as Negro history in most colleges."
Levine distinctly remembers that his motivation for creating this area of study was a result of the civil rights movement leader Stokely Carmichael.
"Stokely Carmichael said in some interview, 'Don't come down to Mississippi and teach us to vote. We know how to vote. Talk at Berkeley. The white students at Berkeley, that's where the problem is.' That's what he said. So I said, Oh, the white students at Berkeley, at Bowdoin. And I began teaching black history."
Levine wanted to participate somehow in the historic movement. "What was I competent at? I was competent at teaching history. So I would begin teaching history."
What began as active participation in the civil rights movement has developed into a professional area of interest. Levine has written numerous works based on race and welfare in the United States and abroad.
His most recent book is a biography of civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, published by Rutgers University Press in 2000.
Another of Levine's books, Poverty and Society: The Growth of the American Welfare State in International Comparison, also published by Rutgers University Press in 1988, had its roots planed during a Fulbright Scholarship nearly 20 years earlier. He was granted his first Fulbright Senior Lectureship in 1969. Given the options of Austria, Vietnam, and Denmark, Levine chose to teach in Scandinavia.
Ever since his year in Denmark, Levine has developed strong ties with the nation. He has returned as a guest professor and lecturer at the University of Copenhagen, and remains fluent in Danish.
While Levine has very much enjoyed his time in Brunswick, he is ready for the next step in his life and academic career?retirement. At the end of this academic year, Levine will be officially retired. However, he looks forward to returning as an adjunct professor, teaching one course per year and continuing his research.
He anticipates continued use of all the Maine coast has to offer. With more free time in retirement, Levine expects to join his son at his house on Sugarloaf and use his ski pass more frequently.
Additionally, Levine has played the cello for many years and is "putting more and more and more time and effort and emotional investment in playing."
As Levine's professional career comes close to an end, his contributions will continue to affect this campus for years to come. Bowdoin College has undoubtedly benefited and will benefit from his presence.
The young boy from Greenwich Village who wanted to grow up to be a teacher has not disappointed himself.