Those who were students in the 1960s, and who then joined the ranks of university faculties and administrations, have seen in that short span of history a rapid flow of events which has brought substantial changes to the institution; changes which may well mark the beginning of a major turn in the history of the university. In the field of education, as in other domains, some knowledge of the past can provide a better understanding of the present and what it might mean for the future. In this article, Glynn Custred traces the modern university's origins from eleventh century Western Europe through the birth of the university outside of Europe to the gradual leftward drift of the American university in the 1940s to the radical transformation in the American university seen today.