Essential Documents in the History of American Higher Education

by John R. Thelin

Overview

A dynamic and thoughtful collection documenting the history of American higher education.

John R. Thelin’s A History of American Higher Education has become a standard in higher education studies. Designed to be used alongside this groundbreaking book or on its own, Essential Documents in the History of American Higher Education presents primary sources that chart the social, intellectual, political, and cultural history of American colleges and universities from the seventeenth century to the present. Documents are organized in sections that parallel the chapters in the first book both chronologically and thematically. Thelin introduces sections with brief headnotes establishing the context for each source.

In addition to such landmark documents as the charter for the College of Rhode Island (1764), the Morrill Land Grand Act (1862), the GI Bill (1944), and the Knight Commission Report on College Sports (2010), Thelin includes lively firsthand accounts by students and teachers that tell what it was like to be a Harvard student in the 1700s, to participate in the campus riots of the 1960s, to be a female college athlete in the 1970s, or to enroll at UCLA as a economically disadvantaged Latina in the 1990s.

Thelin also includes pieces by popular writers such as Robert Benchley and James Thurber on their own college days, as well as an excerpt from Groucho Marx’s screwball film Horse Feathers that help illustrate how ingrained college life has become in American pop culture.

Reflecting the richness of three centuries of American higher education, this complex and nuanced collection will be an essential resource for students of the history of education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421414218
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John R. Thelin is the University Research Professor Emeritus of the history of higher education and public policy at the University of Kentucky. His numerous books include A History of American Higher Education and Games Colleges Play.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Documents and Higher Education's Heritage
1. Colleges in the Colonial Era
1.1. Town and Gown: Anthony Wood's "Riot at Oxford"
1.2. A College Charter in the Colonial Era: The College of Rhode Island (1764)
1.3. A College's Laws and Code of Conduct (1783)
1.4. Finances of the Colonial Colleges
2. Creating the "American Way" in Higher Education: College Building, 1785 to 1860
2.1. A Charter for a New State University: The University of GeorgiaCharter (1785)
2.2. Founding State Universities: The Great Bicentennial Debate, 1785 to1985
2.3. Philanthropy and Student Financial Aid: The American Education Society (1815)
2.4. Higher Education for Women: Charter for Mount-Holyoke Female Seminary (1836)
2.5. College Presidents and Their Students: Thomas R. Dew's Address before the Students of the College of William and Mary (1836)
3. Diversity and Adversity: Resilience in American Higher Education, 1860 to 1890
3.1. Federal Land Grant Legislation: The Morrill Act of 1862
3.2. Student Memoir: Lyman C. Bagg's Four Years at Yale (1871)
3.3. Federal Land Grant Legislation: The Second Morrill Act of 1890
3.4. Stephen J. Wright on the Historical Background and Future Prospects of Black Colleges and Universities (1987)
3.5. College Admissions and Student Consumerism: "The Oldest and Cheapest College in the South" (1892)
4. Captains of Industry and Erudition: University Builders, 1880 to 1910
4.1. Edwin Slosson on Great American Universities in 1910
4.2. Reforming Medical Education: Abraham Flexner's 1910 Report for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
4.3. A College Professor's Wife (1905)
4.4. Jesse Brundage Sears's Report on Endowed Universities (1922)
5. Alma Mater: America Goes to College, 1890 to 1920
5.1. Student Memoir: Robert Benchley's "What College Did to Me" (1927)
5.2. The Popular Press and Women's Colleges: Smith College in 1897
5.3. Student Memoir: James Thurber's "University Days" (1933)
5.4. Real Estate Promotion and Colleges: "A College among the Orange Groves" (1920)
5.5. College Sports Reform: Howard J. Savage's 1929 Report for the CarnegieFoundation for the Advancement of Teaching
6. Success and Excess: Expansion and Reforms in Higher Education, 1920 to 1945
6.1. Hollywood and Higher Education: The Marx Brothers Go to College (1932)
6.2. Student Memoir: John Kenneth Galbraith on Graduate School at Berkeley in the 1930s (1968)
6.3. Federal Student Financial Aid: The GI Bill of 1944
6.4. The Federal Government and Sponsored Research: Vannevar Bush's 1945 Report, Science: The Endless Frontier
6.5. Higher Education for American Democracy: The 1947 Truman Commission Report
7. Gilt by Association: Higher Education's "Golden Age," 1945 to 1970
7.1. Coeducation and Student Life: Rules and Regulations for Women in Higher Education in 1955–56
7.2. The 1960 California Master Plan for Postsecondary Education
7.3. Racial Desegregation at State Universities: Commemorative Plaque at the University of Mississippi
7.4. Student Memoir: Jackie Jensen as the "Student-Athlete" following World War II (1970)
7.5. Campus Unrest and Student Protest: Mario Savio's "Put Your Bodies upon the Gears" Speech at Sproul Plaza, University of California, Berkeley (1964)
7.6. Student Memoir: Steven Kelman on Political Activism at Harvard from1966 to 1970 (1982)
8. Coming of Age in America: Higher Education as a Troubled Giant, 1970 to 2000
8.1. The Campus Condition: The 1971 Newman Report on Higher Education
8.2. Federal Student Financial Aid: Basic Educational Opportunity Grants Program (Pell Grants) from the 1972 Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965
8.3. Missions and Functions of Community Colleges: The 1981 Report of the California Postsecondary Education Commission
8.4. The Changing Profile of College Students in the 1980s
8.5. Student Memoir: Rosa Maria Pegueros, "Todos Vuelven: From Potrero Hill to UCLA" (1995)
8.6. College Sports Reform: The 1991 Knight Commission Report
9. A New Life Begins? Reconfiguring Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century
9.1. College Spending in a Turbulent Decade: Findings from the Delta Cost Project, 2000–2010
9.2. Curriculum and the Culture of a Campus: A Clash between Students and the President at the University of Chicago (1999)
9.3. Faculty Memoir: A Conversation with Professor Laura Nader (2000)
9.4. College Sports Reform: The Problems of Presidents and Rising Expenses in the Knight Commission Report of 2010
9.5. European Expansion of Higher Education: The Bologna Process (1999)
9.6. Higher Education: A New Life Begins
Credits
Index

What People are Saying About This

Linda Eisenmann

"John Thelin is the ideal scholar to create this volume of documents, and not only because his careful scholarship in creating A History has given him a depth that few other senior scholars possess. He is also an acute scholar of archival issues, as is apparent in the introduction to this book and in his short introductions to each of the documents. By commenting on the template of questions he employs in reviewing each document, he demonstrates—and teaches his readers—a thoughtful approach to assessing and analyzing documentary materials. His own writing about those archival issues (cited in the new volume) is a testament to his leadership in helping our field assess its status and the issues surrounding documentation."

From the Publisher

John Thelin is the ideal scholar to create this volume of documents, and not only because his careful scholarship in creating A History has given him a depth that few other senior scholars possess. He is also an acute scholar of archival issues, as is apparent in the introduction to this book and in his short introductions to each of the documents. By commenting on the template of questions he employs in reviewing each document, he demonstrates—and teaches his readers—a thoughtful approach to assessing and analyzing documentary materials. His own writing about those archival issues (cited in the new volume) is a testament to his leadership in helping our field assess its status and the issues surrounding documentation.
—Linda Eisenmann, Wheaton College

The history of American higher education has been shaped by a great number and variety of actors and influences, each of which is ably represented and explained in Thelin’s compendium of Essential Documents. The volume is more than a handy reference guide for the library’s or the professor’s bookshelf, but is a wonderful teaching tool, employing a wide lens, to help develop those studying and writing about the history of American colleges and universities to gain a more complete understanding of these important institutions.
—Christian K. Anderson, University of South Carolina

John Thelin's taste in making these selections reflects his extraordinary grasp of American higher education.
—Sol Gittleman, Tufts University

Christian K. Anderson

"The history of American higher education has been shaped by a great number and variety of actors and influences, each of which is ably represented and explained in Thelin’s compendium of Essential Documents. The volume is more than a handy reference guide for the library’s or the professor’s bookshelf, but is a wonderful teaching tool, employing a wide lens, to help develop those studying and writing about the history of American colleges and universities to gain a more complete understanding of these important institutions."

Sol Gittleman

"John Thelin's taste in making these selections reflects his extraordinary grasp of American higher education."

Editorial Reviews

"The primary purpose of this collection is to provide illustrative material for the readers of the textbook, but because of the nature of the documents, the book is of interest in its own right."

PsycCRITIQUES - Bruce B. Henderson

A History of American Higher Education is a "must read" for any scholar either teaching or taking a course in educational history.

Historical Studies in Education - Elea U. Herrera

For those with an interest in higher education, whether a graduate student, a researcher, or a faculty member, this is a fascinating book . . . The work provides a wealth of useful information that will find regular use in academic libraries. It is highly recommended.
—American Reference Books Annual

The primary purpose of this collection is to provide illustrative material for the readers of the textbook, but because of the nature of the documents, the book is of interest in its own right.
—PsycCRITIQUES

John Thelin is the ideal scholar to create this volume of documents, and not only because his careful scholarship in creating A History has given him a depth that few other senior scholars possess. He is also an acute scholar of archival issues, as is apparent in the introduction to this book and in his short introductions to each of the documents. By commenting on the template of questions he employs in reviewing each document, he demonstrates—and teaches his readers—a thoughtful approach to assessing and analyzing documentary materials. His own writing about those archival issues (cited in the new volume) is a testament to his leadership in helping our field assess its status and the issues surrounding documentation.
—Linda Eisenmann, Wheaton College

The history of American higher education has been shaped by a great number and variety of actors and influences, each of which is ably represented and explained in Thelin's compendium Essential Documents. The volume is more than a handy reference guide for the library's or the professor's bookshelf; it is a wonderful teaching tool, employing a wide lens, to help develop those studying and writing about the history of American colleges and universities to gain a more complete understanding of these important institutions.
—Christian K. Anderson, University of South Carolina

John Thelin's taste in making these selections reflects his extraordinary grasp of American higher education.
—Sol Gittleman, Tufts University

From the Publisher

The primary purpose of this collection is to provide illustrative material for the readers of the textbook, but because of the nature of the documents, the book is of interest in its own right.

PsycCRITIQUES

For those with an interest in higher education, whether a graduate student, a researcher, or a faculty member, this is a fascinating book . . . The work provides a wealth of useful information that will find regular use in academic libraries. It is highly recommended.

American Reference Books Annual

The history of American higher education has been shaped by a great number and variety of actors and influences, each of which is ably represented and explained in Thelin's compendium Essential Documents. The volume is more than a handy reference guide for the library's or the professor's bookshelf; it is a wonderful teaching tool, employing a wide lens, to help develop those studying and writing about the history of American colleges and universities to gain a more complete understanding of these important institutions.

Christian K. Anderson

John Thelin is the ideal scholar to create this volume of documents, and not only because his careful scholarship in creating A History has given him a depth that few other senior scholars possess. He is also an acute scholar of archival issues, as is apparent in the introduction to this book and in his short introductions to each of the documents. By commenting on the template of questions he employs in reviewing each document, he demonstrates—and teaches his readers—a thoughtful approach to assessing and analyzing documentary materials. His own writing about those archival issues (cited in the new volume) is a testament to his leadership in helping our field assess its status and the issues surrounding documentation.

Linda Eisenmann

John Thelin's taste in making these selections reflects his extraordinary grasp of American higher education.

Sol Gittleman

"For those with an interest in higher education, whether a graduate student, a researcher, or a faculty member, this is a fascinating book... The work provides a wealth of useful information that will find regular use in academic libraries. It is highly recommended."

American Reference Books Annual - Gregory A. Crawford