For the first 200 years of American higher education, the baccalaureate program was shaped by the authority of tradition, seldom challenged, and easily accommodating new learning and changing social conditions. After the Civil War, the authority of tradition was undermined by emerging professional academicians, trained in particular bodies of knowledge, and dedicated to a style of "scientific" learning. By World War II, tradition, professional academicians, and society shared authority over what went on in higher education. Since World War II, the accelerating democratization of higher education has created in students a new authority over their course of study. The evolution of the American college through these phases is traced in this paper. An analysis is presented of periods of American education, such as the beginnings of small provincial colleges in the eastern United States in the early 1800s, the growth of private and public universities in the late nineteenth century, and the development toward providing mass education immediately after World War II. Complex social changes that transformed secondary schools, colleges, and universities from their inception to the present are discussed in light of their influence on the thinking, attitudes, and aspirations of communities, students, teachers, and the government. (JD)