History of the University

General Resources

Early Educational History

The 19th-Century University

General

Germany

U.K.

U.S.

Canada

India

Early 20th-Century University (to Mid-Century)

General

U.K.

U.S.

Late 20th-Century University

General

U.S.

= More Info (see policy on "more info" links)

General Resources

• John S. Brubacher and Willis Rudy, Higher Education in Transition: A History of American Colleges and Universities, 1636-1968 (New York: Harper & Row, 1968)
• Harvard Graduate School of Education Gutman Library, Special Collections (description and illustrated samples of holdings in historical textbooks, public school reports, private school catalogs, history of education and teacher training, and other areas; also includes links to related collections elsewhere) (warning: multiple illustrations on the home page result in long download time)
• The History of Education Site (rich set of links, bibliographies, and other resources relating to the social and institutional history of education) (Henk van Setten, U. Nijmegen, Netherlands)
  1. Selected Resources:
  2. Archives & Source Collections
  3. Online Education Classics
  4. Important Educators
  5. Childhood & Family
  6. General / Primary Education
  7. Higher Education
  8. Special Education
• Richard Hofstadter and Walter P. Metzger, The Development of Academic Freedom in the United States (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1955)
• The Ideas of a University (U. Northern British Columbia) | History of Ideas of the University
• Carl Jaspers, The Idea of the University (London: Peter Owen, 1960)
• Christopher J. Lucas, American Higher Education: A History, vol. 1 (1994; rpt.; New York: St. Martin's, 1996)
• Frederick Rudolph, Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636, prepared for the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1977)
• Daniel Schugurensky (UCLA), Politics of Education (course; includes History of Politics of Education Page compiled by students)
• Sources for the History of Education (bibliography and description of resources) (National Register of Archives, UK / Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts)
• U. London Institute of Education Library Collections (description of archival collections)
• Laurence R. Veysey, The Emergence of the American University (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1965)
• Harold S. Wechsler, The Qualified Student: A History of Selective College Admission in America (New York: Wiley, 1977)

Early Educational History

• Rebecca W. Bushnell, A Culture of Teaching: Early Modern Humanism in Theory and Practice (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 1996)

The 19th-Century University

• General 19th-Century University Resources
  • Elizabeth Seymour Eschbach, The Higher Education of Women in England and America, 1865-1920 (New York : Garland, 1993)
  • Robert R. Locke, The End of the Practical Man: Entrepreneurship and Higher Education in Germany, France, and Great Britain, 1880-1940 (Greenwich, CT: JAI, 1984)
  • Sheldon Rothblatt and Bjorn Wittrock, The European and American University Since 1800: Historical and Sociological Essays (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993)
  • Michael Sanderson, ed., The Universities in the Nineteenth Century (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975)
• The German Research University Model
  • Idee und Wirklichkeit einer Universität: Dokumente zur Geschichte der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, ed. Wilhelm Weischedel (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1960)
  • Gottlob Frege
    1. "Einige Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten ," in Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Gesamtausgabe, 4 Abteilungen (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt:Friedrich Fromann, 1964-78), I, vol. 3, 3-68
    2. "Über das Wesen des Gelehrten," Gesamtausgabe, I, vol. 8, 39-139
    3. Deduzierte Plan einer zu Berlin zuerrichtenden höhern Lehranstalt (1808), in Die Idee der Deutschen Universität, ed. Ernst Anrich, (Darmstadt: 1956), pp. 127-217
  • Wilhelm von Humboldt, "On the Spirit and the Organisational Framework of Intellectual Institutions in Berlin," Minerva 8 (1970): 242-50 [abrided edition of Humboldt's proposal for the University of Berlin]
  • Immanuel Kant, The Conflict of the Faculties [1798], trans. Mary J. Gregor (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1979)
  • Walter Perry, German University Education, or the Professors and Students of Germany. To which is added, a brief account of the Public Schools of Prussia, with Observations on the Influence of Philosophy on the Studies of the German Universities (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1846)
  • Bill Readings, The University in Ruins (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1996), Chaps. 4-6
  • Friedrich Schelling, On University Studies, trans. E.S. Morgan (Athens, Ohio: Ohio Univ. Press)
  • Friedrich von Schiller, "Was heisst und zu welchem Ende studiert Man Universalgesichte" [1789] in Sämtliche Werke, 5 vols (Carl Hanser: Munich,1980), 4: 749-67
  • Friedrich Schleiermacher, Gelegentliche Gedanken über Universitäten in deutschen Sinnewith an "Anhang über eine neue zu errichtende Universität" (1808) in Die Idee der Deutschen Universität, ed. Ernst Anrich, (Darmstadt: 1956), pp. 221-308
• British Universities in the 19th Century
  • General 19th-C. British University Resources
    • William Hamilton, "On the Right of Dissenters to Admission into the English Universities," in Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, Education and University Reform. Chiefly from the Edinburgh Review (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1855)
    • J.W. Hudson, The History of Adult Education, in which is comprised a full and complete history of the Mechanics' and Literary Institutions, Athenæum (1851; rpt. London: Woburn, 1969).
    • John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976)
      1. From the Introduction and Discourses 3 and 4 (Newman Center at Caltech U.)
    • D.J. Palmer, The Rise of English Studies: An Account of the Study of the English Language and Literature from its Origins to the Making of the Oxford English School (London / New York: published for U. Hull by Oxford Univ. Press, 1965) | Excerpt on "An Education for the Industrial Classes" (Rita Raley, U. California, Santa Barbara)
    • Adam Sedgwick, A Discourse on the Studies of the University (1883; rpt. New York: Leicester Univ. Press, 1969)
      1. Excerpt (Rita Raley, U. California, Santa Barbara)
    • Reba N. Soffer, Discipline and Power: The University, History, and the Making of an English Elite, 1870-1930 (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1995)
    • William Whewell, On the Principles of English University Education (London: John W. Parker, 1837)
    • Augustus Samuel Wilkins, Our National Universities, in Henry Robert Reynolds, ed., Ecclesia: A Second Series of Essays on Theological and Ecclesiastical Questions (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1870): 299-354
  • Cambridge U. in the 19th Century
    • Peter Allen, The Cambridge Apostles: The Early Years (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978)
  • Oxford U. in the 19th Century
    • Reform Debate (1801, 1807 and after)
      • Edinburgh Review Articles
        1. John Playfair, "Traite de Mechanique Celeste. Par P.S. LaPlace," No. 22, vol. 11 (1808): 249-84
        2. Payne Knight, "The Oxford Education of Strabo," No. 28, vol. 14 (1809): 429-41
        3. Sydney Smith, "Essays in Professional Education by R. Edgeworth," No. 29, vol. 15 (1809): 40-53
      • University's Response
        • Edward Copleston, A Reply to the Calumnies of the Edinburgh Reivew against Oxford. Containing an Account of Studies pursued in that University (Oxford: Oxford U., 1810)
      • Mark Pattison, Suggestions on Academical Organization with Especial Reference to Oxford (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1868)
  • Working Men's College
    • J. Llewelyn Davies, ed., The Working Men's College: 1854-1904 (London: Macmillan, 1904)
    • F.J. Furnivall, Early History of the Working Men's College (1891). Reprinted from the Working Men's College Magazine 2 (1860): 144-8, 165-70, 188-92
  • Scottish Universities in the 19th Century
    • George Elder Davie, The Democratic Intellect: Scotland and Her Universities in the Nineteenth Century, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1964 [1961])
• U.S. Universities in the 19th Century
  • Ralph D. Christy and Lionel Williamson, eds., A Century of Service: Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, 1890-1990 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1992)
  • J. B. Edmond, The Magnificent Charter: The Origin and Role of the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges and Universities (Hicksville, N.Y.: Exposition Press, 1978)
  • Edmund Janes James, The Origin of the Land Grant Act of 1862 (Urbana-Champaig: University Press, 1910)
  • Allan Nevins, The Origins of the Land-Grant Colleges and State Universities; A Brief Account of the Morrill Act of 1862 and its Results (Washington, D.C.: Civil War Centennial Commission, 1962)
• Canadian Universities in the 19th Century
  • David M. Cameron, More Than an Academic Question: Universities, Government, and Public Policy in Canada (Halifax, N.S.: Institute for Research on Public Policy, 1991)
• Universities in India in the 19th Century
  • Thomas B. Macaulay, "Minute on Indian Education" (1835) (Rita Raley, U. California, Santa Barbara)
  • K. K. Pillay, History of Higher Education in South India (Madras: Associated Printers, 1957)
  • Charles Wood, General Education in India, India Public Department. Despatch No. 49, 19 July 1854. India Office Record: E/4/826 (numbered pages 943-1184; despatch provided for the founding of universities in India)

Early 20th-Century University (to Mid-Century)

• General Early 20th-Century University Resources
  • Elizabeth Seymour Eschbach, The Higher Education of Women in England and America, 1865-1920 (New York : Garland, 1993)
  • Abraham Flexner, Universities: American, English, German (NY: Oxford UP, 1930)
  • Robert R. Locke, The End of the Practical Man: Entrepreneurship and Higher Education in Germany, France, and Great Britain, 1880-1940 (Greenwich, CT: JAI, 1984)
  • Arnold Nash, The University and the Modern World: An Essay in the Philosophy of University Education (New York: Macmillan, 1944)
  • Sheldon Rothblatt and Bjorn Wittrock, The European and American University Since 1800: Historical and Sociological Essays (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993)
• U.K. Universities in the Early 20th Century
  • F.R. Leavis, "The Idea of a University," in Education and the University: A Sketch for an 'English School' " (New York: George W. Stewart, 1948)
• U.S. Universities in the Early 20th Century
  • Clyde W. Barrow, Universities and the Capitalist State: Corporate Liberalism and the Reconstruction of American Higher Education, 1894-1928 (Madison, Wisconsin: U. Wisconsin Press, 1990)
  • Burton J. Bledstein, The Culture of Professionalsim: The Middle Class and the Development of Higher Education in America (New York: Norton, 1976)
  • Steven G. Brint and Jerome Karabel, The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989)
  • Ralph D. Christy, Lionel Williamson, A Century of Service: Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, 1890-1990 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1992)
  • John Dewey, Democracy and Education (Institute for Learning Technologies, Columbia U.)
  • Orrin Leslie Elliott, Stanford University: The First Twenty-Five Years (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1937)
  • Roger L. Geiger, To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research Universities, 1900-1940 (NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986)
  • Hugh Davis Graham and Nancy Diamond, The Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1996)
  • W. Bruce Leslie, Gentlemen and Scholars: College and Community in the "Age of the University," 1865-1917(University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1992)
  • David O. Levine, The American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 1915-1940 (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. press, 1986)
  • Edwin Emery Slosson, Great American Universities (1910)
  • James C. Stone and Donald P. DeNevi, Portraits of the American University, 1890-1910 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1971)
  • Laurence Veysey, The Emergence of the American University (Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1965)

Late 20th-Century University

(See also Contemporary Reflections on the Idea of the University)

• General Late 20th-Century University Resources
  • Patricia Baldwin, Covering the Campus: The History of the "Chronicle of Higher Education," 1966-1993 (Denton, TX: U. North Texas Press, 1995)
  • Judith S. Eaton, The Unfinished Agenda: Higher Education and the 1980's (New York : American Council on Education / Macmillan Pub. Co.; Toronto: Collier Macmillan Canada, 1991)
  • Robert R. Locke, Management and Higher Education Since 1940: The Influence of America and Japan on West Germany, Great Britain, and France (Cambridge / New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989)
  • Fergal McGrath, Newman's University: Idea and Reality (London: Longmans, Green, 1951)
• U.S. Universities in the Late 20th Century
  • Steven G. Brint and Jerome Karabel, The Diverted Dream: Community Colleges and the Promise of Educational Opportunity in America, 1900-1985 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1989)
  • Noam Chomsky, ed. The Cold War & the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years (New Press, 1997)
  • Ralph D. Christy, Lionel Williamson, A Century of Service: Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, 1890-1990 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1992)
  • Richard M. Freeland, Academia's Golden Age: Universities in Massachussetts, 1945-1970 (NY: Oxford UP, 1992)
  • Roger L. Geiger, Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities Since World War II (NY: Oxford UP, 1993)
  • Clark Kerr, The Great Transformation in Higher Education, 1960-1980 (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1991)
  • Arthur Levine, ed., Higher Learning in America, 1980-2000 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993)

Special thanks to Timothy Clark, U. Durham; Colin Jager, U. Michigan; and Rita Raley, U. California, Santa Barbara, for contributions to this page.