Michael A. Olivas
The thing about any John Thelin book—including this timely revision of his masterwork—is that it will be deeply researched, thoughtfully organized, and beautifully written. His synthetic range of resources is astounding, and you can almost taste the popcorn at the football games and touch the ivy on the buildings.
Linda Eisenmann
In this new edition, Thelin masterfully examines continuities and challenges across centuries of American higher education, exploring purposes, access, funding, governance, equity, and student life. He concludes by probing how twenty-first-century economic, demographic, and legal developments are affecting—and sometimes unsettling—basic institutional principles and commitments.
Thomas G. Dyer
This is a splendid book, by far the best to appear on the subject since the 1962 publication of Frederick Rudolph's The American College and University: A History. John Thelin's work will supplant Rudolph's as the dominant overview of the history of American higher education. Comprehensive but not encyclopedic, Thelin's account is interspersed with lively anecdotes and a creative emphasis on cultural history that will keep the attention of readers. It is a tour de force.
Thomas G. Dyer, University of Georgia
Bruce A. Kimball
John Thelin's new edition of his comprehensive and balanced history of American higher education makes an important contribution to students and to scholars. Culminating in his new chapter on the 2010s, this is the most up-to-date such history now available.
Marybeth Gasman
John Thelin's A History of American Higher Education sets the foundation for discussions of colleges and universities in the United States. Thelin has spent years delving into archives and engaging literature to tell a fascinating and lively story of higher education. His humor, engaging writing, and vast knowledge make history come alive for the readers and he pushes them to consider the historical foundations of the current issues, scandals, challenges, and successes within the higher education context.
From the Publisher
The thing about any John Thelin book—including this timely revision of his masterwork—is that it will be deeply researched, thoughtfully organized, and beautifully written. His synthetic range of resources is astounding, and you can almost taste the popcorn at the football games and touch the ivy on the buildings.—Michael A. Olivas, University of Houston Law Center, author of Suing Alma Mater: Higher Education and the Courts
John Thelin's new edition of his comprehensive and balanced history of American higher education makes an important contribution to students and to scholars. Culminating in his new chapter on the 2010s, this is the most up-to-date such history now available.—Bruce A. Kimball, Ohio State University, author of The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Documentary History
John Thelin's A History of American Higher Education sets the foundation for discussions of colleges and universities in the United States. Thelin has spent years delving into archives and engaging literature to tell a fascinating and lively story of higher education. His humor, engaging writing, and vast knowledge make history come alive for the readers and he pushes them to consider the historical foundations of the current issues, scandals, challenges, and successes within the higher education context.—Marybeth Gasman, University of Pennsylvania, coauthor of Educating a Diverse Nation: Lessons from Minority-Serving Institutions
In this new edition, Thelin masterfully examines continuities and challenges across centuries of American higher education, exploring purposes, access, funding, governance, equity, and student life. He concludes by probing how twenty-first-century economic, demographic, and legal developments are affecting—and sometimes unsettling—basic institutional principles and commitments.—Linda Eisenmann, Wheaton College, author of Higher Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945–1965