Wisdom's Workshop

The Rise of the Modern University

James Axtell

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780691247588, 9780691149592
• eBook ISBN: 9781400880423
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

An essential history of the modern research university

When universities began in the Middle Ages, Pope Gregory IX described them as "wisdom's special workshop." He could not have foreseen how far these institutions would travel and develop. Tracing the eight-hundred-year evolution of the elite research university from its roots in medieval Europe to its remarkable incarnation today, Wisdom's Workshop places this durable institution in sweeping historical perspective. In particular, James Axtell focuses on the ways that the best American universities took on Continental influences, developing into the finest expressions of the modern university and enviable models for kindred institutions worldwide. Despite hand-wringing reports to the contrary, the venerable university continues to renew itself, becoming ever more indispensable to society in the United States and beyond.

Born in Europe, the university did not mature in America until the late nineteenth century. Once its heirs proliferated from coast to coast, their national role expanded greatly during World War II and the Cold War. Axtell links the legacies of European universities and Tudor-Stuart Oxbridge to nine colonial and hundreds of pre–Civil War colleges, and delves into how U.S. universities were shaped by Americans who studied in German universities and adapted their discoveries to domestic conditions and goals. The graduate school, the PhD, and the research imperative became and remain the hallmarks of the American university system and higher education institutions around the globe.

A rich exploration of the historical lineage of today's research universities, Wisdom's Workshop explains the reasons for their ascendancy in America and their continued international preeminence.

INDEX

Note: Pages in bold indicate text in figures.

Abelard, Peter, 3, 27–28; Sic et Non (Yes and No), 25

academies, American, 150, 151–59, 179, 184, 217; buildings of, 153–54; and colonial colleges, 126–27, 130; curricula of, 152, 155–57, 158; female, 156; and fraternal orders, 153; funding of, 167; geographical spread and popularity of, 158; as institutes or seminaries, 151; libraries and equipment of, 154; multipurpose, xvi; number of, 151; numbers enrolled in, 158n29; student-faculty ratio of, 157; teachers in, 152–53

Adams, Charles K., 261

Adams, Herbert Baxter, 233n29

Adams, John, 118

Advanced Placement (AP), 280, 370

Aeschylus, 202

African American colleges, 281, 323

African Americans, 310n80, 323, 352

Agassiz, Louis, 300

Agricola, Rudolph, 80–81, 101

Alabama, 155

Alabama, University of, 188n100

Altertumswissenschaft, 202

alumni, 61, 168n54, 285, 365n7; associations of, 168, 292, 293; and athletics, 360; and boards of trustees, 292; donations from, 366; funding by, 292, 312, 313–14; and graduate societies, 292; reunions of, 292

American Academy of Science, 329

American Association for the Advancement of Science, 200, 351n94

American Association of University Professors, 266, 368

American Civil War, 147, 152, 154, 156, 215, 276; period after, 220, 221, 222, 226

American Council of Education, 327

American Council of Learned Societies, 308, 351n94

American Education Society, 167–68

American frontier, 142, 148, 221, 276; colleges on, 149, 169, 171, 174, 179, 182, 184, 208, 209

American Historical Association, 274

American Home Missionary Society, 167

American Journal of Mathematics, 273

American Journal of Science and Arts, 200

American Legion, 319

American Philological Association, 306

American Revolution, xvi, 123, 127, 134, 137, 14...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Prologue
• Acknowledgments
• One: Foundings
• Two: Oxbridge
• Three: The Collegiate Way Abroad
• Four: A Land of Colleges
• Five: The German Impress
• Six: Coming of Age
• Seven: Multiversities and Beyond
• Epilogue
• Suggested Reading
• Index