IV. _Since World War II._ Most of the leaders who refused to accept Communism have come to the United States. The outstanding scholars and artists have also come to find refuge. In some instances, it is no exaggeration to say that centers of the higher culture have been transferred to the United States. Simultaneously, the emergence of this country as the spokesman and champion of the free world has awakened far broader classes of the American public to the importance of the Slavs in the modern world and has led to a greater demand for scholarship in those fields which concern the Slavic nations. There are thus two separate streams of Slavic scholarship in the United States. The one is the normal inclusion of Slavic subjects, history, culture and languages into the American universities and colleges. This has been a normal process of development, just as in other areas of study. Side by side with this, however, have been the efforts of the national Slavic groups in the United States. These two streams developed for many years in almost complete separation, but between the two World Wars they began to affect each other. Since World War II, the two streams are slowly but surely merging and it is probable that in the future they will be completely consolidated to the advantage of Slavic scholarship, the American people, and the entire free world which still maintains those universal ideals that have come to dominate civilization. CHAPTER 3 SLAVIC STUDIES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Slavic studies were slow in making a formal appearance in American colleges and universities. There were many reasons for this, not the least being the general submergence of the Slavic countries (except Russia) in the eighteenth century. At this period, the Slavic languages were little studied in Germany or France, far less in England and thus their absence in the United States is readily understandable. In addition, the early American colleges, especially before the Civil War, had limited curricula. They were modelled on Oxford and Cambridge but, restricted in finances, libraries, and personnel, their curricula were largely adapted to the presumed needs of the day. They were intended to prepare men for the Protestant ministry or the law. Enrollments were small and confined to certain groups of the population. There was relatively little broad intellectual interest in the country although men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or even Count Benjamin T. Rumford had won recognized places in the world of scholarship and of ideas.