For the Common Good

Charles Dorn

Description

Are colleges and universities in a period of unprecedented disruption? Is a bachelor's degree still worth the investment? Are the humanities coming to an end? What, exactly, is higher education good for?In For the Common Good, Charles Dorn challenges the rhetoric of America's so-called crisis in higher education by investigating two centuries of college and university history. From the community college to the elite research university-in states from California to Maine-Dorn engages a fundamental question confronted by higher education institutions ever since the nation's founding: Do colleges and universities contribute to the common good?Tracking changes in the prevailing social ethos between the late eighteenth and early twenty-first centuries, Dorn illustrates the ways in which civic-mindedness, practicality, commercialism, and affluence influenced higher education's dedication to the public good. Each ethos, long a part of American history and tradition, came to predominate over the others during one of the four chronological periods examined in the book, informing the character of institutional debates and telling the definitive story of its time. For the Common Good demonstrates how two hundred years of political, economic, and social change prompted transformation among colleges and universities-including the establishment of entirely new kinds of institutions-and refashioned higher education in the United States over time in essential and often vibrant ways.

Sujets

• History of education
• Higher education
• History of the Americas
• Educational psychology

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 06 juin 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501712616
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

FORTHECOMMONGOOD

Avolumeintheseries AmericanInstitutionsandSociety EditedbyBrianBaloghandJonathanZimmerman

A full list of titles in the series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

FORTHE COMMON GOOD ANewHistoryofHigher Education in America

CharlesDorn

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2017 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2017 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Dorn, Charles, author. Title: For the common good : a new history of higher education in America /  Charles Dorn. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical  references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016052777 (print) | LCCN 2016054349 (ebook) |  ISBN 9780801452345 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501712609 (epub/mobi) |  ISBN 9781501712616 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Education, Higher—United States—History. | Universities and  colleges—United States—History. Classification: LCC LA226 .D67 2017 (print) | LCC LA226 (ebook) |  DDC 378,73—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052777

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cover illustrations: Oil painting of South Carolina College, c. 1850, courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C. (top). Color postcard of Wells Hall at the Michigan Agricultural College, c. 1900, courtesy of Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections (middle). Photograph of Stanford University, c. 2010, courtesy of www.wallpaperswide. com (bottom).

For Niles

Wearecompelledtoreadjustourviewpoint— to learn how to work together for common ends andforthecommongood. —Stanford University President Ray Lyman Wilbur, 1916

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

RLYNATIONALPEROIDHTAEE 1. “Literary Institutions Are Founded and Endowed for the Common Good”  The Liberal Professions in New England 2. “The Good Order and the Harmony of the Whole Community”  Public Higher Learning in the South 3. “To Promote More Effectually the Grand Interests of Society”  Catholic Higher Education in the MidAtlantic

LUMEBELCIVIANDATNTEHRERAWLSA 4. “To Spread Throughout the Land, an Army of Practical Men”  Agriculture and Mechanics in the Midwest 5. “The Instruction Necessary to the Practical Duties of the Profession”  Teacher Education in the West

SNOCERONTIUCTRGHOUHRTSCETEHOWLRNODRDWA 6. “To Qualify Its Students for Personal Success” The Rise of the University in the West 7. “This Is to Be Our Profession—To Serve the World” Women’s Higher Education in New England 8. “The Burden of His Ambition Is to Achieve a Distinguished Career” American Higher Education in the MidAtlantic African

TCENTURNTYFIRSYLDCOARWETHEHTEWTRHTHGUO 9. “A Wedding Ceremony between Industry and the University”  The Urban University in the Southeast

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10. “To Meet the Training and Retraining Needs of Established Business”  Community Colleges in the Northeast and Southwest

Epilogue

Notes SelectedBibliography Index

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237 283 301

Acknowledgments

Iamextremelygratefultomanyfriends,familymembers,students,andcolleagues who supported me throughout the time I worked on this project. Although its faults are my own, the book would not exist had it not been for their contribu tions. I am also thankful for the very generous research travel and sabbatical support that Bowdoin College and the Spencer Foundation have provided over the past several years. ManyBowdoinCollegestudentsparticipatedinthebook’sdevelopment.I especially appreciate the helpful comments I received on drafts of the manuscript from students in my history of higher education courses. In addition, Kate Berk ley, Georgia Nowers, Molly Porcher, Erin St. Peter, Serena Taj, Anna Williams, and particularly Ryan Szantyr assisted in tracking down citations, proofing text, editing footnotes, and making multiple trips to the library. I thank them for their diligence and patience. Myresearchbenefitedoverwhelminglyfromtheassistanceofatalented group of college and university librarians and archivists. Listed according to the order in which their respective institutions appear in the book’s chapters, they are: Ginny Hopcroft, Caroline Moseley, Guy Saldanha, Graham Duncan, Patrick Scott, Elizabeth West, Lynn Conway, Ann Galloway, Ed Busch, Cynthia Ghering, Rebecca Kohn, Danelle Moon, Daniel Hartwig, Maggie Kimball, Karen Kukil, Nanci Young, Teddy Abebe, Clifford Muse, Andy Huse, John Collins, Briana Fiandt, and Robin Potter. Fellowscholars,particularlymembersoftheHistoryofEducationSociety, kindly agreed to read early versions of chapters and provide critical input. Many also gave of their time to discuss the project as it developed. Special thanks to Barbara Beatty, Connie Chiang, Linda Eisenmann, Scott Gelber, Nancy Jennings, Peter Kallaway, Matt Klingle, Kathy Luckett, Maggie Nash, Chris Ogren, Dan Perlstein, Julie Reuben, Doris Santoro, Rob Siebörger, Kim Tolley, and Wayne Urban. A smaller group of colleagues not only encouraged me at crucial moments when the project felt as if it were grinding to a halt, but also read the entire manu script (some, more than once) and offered thoughtful suggestions. Thank you David Hecht, Chris Loss, Hilary Moss, Brian Purnell, and Rob Sobak. Asseriescoeditor,JonathanZimmermanshepherdedthisbookthrough multiple revisions, reading each chapter many times and providing construc tive feedback combined with detailed recommendations. When I hit the wall at

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