This latest volume in Roger Geiger's distinguished series on the history of higher education begins with a rare glimpse into the minds of mid-nineteenth century collegians. Timothy J. Williams mines the diaries of students at the University of North Carolina to unearth a not unexpected preoccupation with sex, but also a complex psychological context for those feelings. Marc A. VanOverbeke continues the topic in an essay shedding new light on a fundamental change ushering in the university era: the transition from high schools to college.The secularization of the curriculum is a fundamental feature of the emergence of the modern university. Katherine V. Sedgwick explores a distinctive manifestation by questioning why the curriculum of Bryn Mawr College did not refl ect the religious intentions of its Quaker founder and trustees. Secularization is examined more broadly by W. Bruce Leslie, who shows how denominational faith ceded its ascendancy to "Pan-Protestantism."Where does the record of contemporary events end and the study of history begin? A new collection of documents from World War II to the present invites Roger Geiger's refl ection on this question, as well as consideration of the most signifi cant trends of the postwar era. Educators chafi ng under current attacks on higher education may take solace or dismay from the essay "Shaping a Century of Criticism" in which Katherine Reynolds Chaddock and James M. Wallace explore H. L. Mencken's writings, which address enduring issues and debates on the meaning and means of American higher education.

First-year composition became the most common course in American higher education not because it could “fix” underprepared student writers, but because it has historically served significant institutional interests. That is, it can be “conceded” in multiple ways to help institutions solve political, promotional, and financial problems. Conceding Composition is a wide-ranging historical examination of composition’s evolving institutional value in American higher education over the course of nearly a century. Based on extensive archival research conducted at six American universities and using the specific cases of institutional mission, regional accreditation, and federal funding, this study demonstrates that administrators and faculty have introduced, reformed, maintained, threatened, or eliminated composition as part of negotiations related to nondisciplinary institutional exigencies. Viewing composition from this perspective, author Ryan Skinnell raises new questions about why composition exists in the university, how it exists, and how teachers and scholars might productively reconceive first-year composition in light of its institutional functions. The book considers the rhetorical, political, organizational, institutional, and promotional options conceding composition opened up for institutions of higher education and considers what the first-year course and the discipline might look like with composition’s transience reimagined not as a barrier but as a consummate institutional value.

Change and Continuity in American Colleges and Universities explores major ideas which have shaped the history and development of higher education in North America and considers how these inform contemporary innovations in the sector. Chapters address intellectual, organizational, social, and political movements which occurred across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and have impacted the policies, scholarship, and practices enacted at a variety of public and private institutions throughout the United States. Topics addressed include the politics of racial segregation, the place of religion in Higher Education, and models of leadership. Through rigorous historical analyses of education reform cases, this text puts forward useful lessons on how colleges and universities have navigated change in the past, and may do so in the future. This text will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and students in the fields of Higher Education, administration and leadership, as well as the history of education and educational reform.

This open access book presents contemporary perspectives on the role of a learning society from the lens of leading practitioners, experts from universities, governments, and industry leaders. The think pieces argue for a learning society as a major driver of change with far-reaching influence on learning to serve the needs of economies and societies. The book is a testimonial to the importance of ‘learning communities.’ It highlights the pivotal role that can be played by non-traditional actors such as city and urban planners, citizens, transport professionals, and technology companies. This collection seeks to contribute to the discourse on strengthening the fabric of a learning society crucial for future economic and social development, particularly in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease.

This volume provides unique insight into how American colleges and universities have been significantly impacted and shaped by college football, and considers how U.S. sports culture more generally has intersected with broader institutional and educational issues. By documenting events from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries including protests, legal battles, and policy reforms which were centred around college sports, this distinctive volume illustrates how football has catalyzed broader controversies and progress relating to race and diversity, commercialization, corruption, and reform in higher education. Relying foremost on primary archival material, chapters illustrate the continued cultural, social, and economic themes and impacts of college athletics on U.S. higher education and campus life today. This text will benefit researchers, graduate students, and academics in the fields of higher education, as well as the history of education and sport more broadly. Those interested in the sociology of education and the politics of sport will also enjoy this volume.