Higher Education in Twentieth-Century America

In this book, William DeVane defines and illuminates the major trends in collegiate and university education in twentieth-century America. His analysis, rather than a formal history, is the distillation of a lifetime’s work and reflection of the subject. The method he employs is to single out particular institutions for the parts they have played or still play. Yale College illustrates the survival of the American college into the twentieth century; Johns Hopkins exemplifies the beginnings of the university movement; Harvard its later course; Wisconsin and Michigan represent different developments of the state university; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology exhibits one aspect, in its extreme form, of the institution of higher education under contemporary pressures. The development of academic specialization in various universities is also fully considered. Written in a clear and unpretentious style, this work offers a perceptive and absorbing study of the swift-moving changes, direction, and state of higher education in America today.