As colleges and universities respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, many in the media call it "unprecedented." This is not the first time that institutions of higher education have had to respond to an epidemic, however. A historical review of college and university reactions to illnesses such as yellow fever and the 1918 influenza pandemic…

In 1979, fourteen years after publishing his landmark work, "The Emergence of the American University," Laurence R. Veysey wrote a forward-looking article for the "American Quarterly" titled "The Autonomy of American History Reconsidered." In his article, Veysey suggested that the time had come to rewrite American…

In this paper, the author examines the content of Laurence Veysey's subsequent scholarship--centered upon his career-long fascination with the "price structure" of American society and institutions. Veysey's first scholarly volume after The Emergence of the American University was Law and Resistance: American Attitudes toward Authority (1970).…

Focusing on the medieval university during its formative years (late 1100s and early 1200s), the author addresses questions such as "How did the ambitions of students and masters influence the organization and curriculum of these new institutions?" Concludes that society was served by these universities despite the indication that the…

Presents an historical context for understanding developments at U. S. colleges and universities during the 1960s, when over half the campuses experienced some kind of demonstration. Provides an in-depth analysis of the socio-political forces that spawned the radical reform groups of that decade. (JDH)

The first academic quality ranking of American colleges and universities was produced by the U.S. Bureau of Education in 1911. The institutions were stratified into five levels according to their presumed quality. However, because protests led to this work's being suppressed before its official publication, very little is known about it. (RM)

Efforts to make over German universities in the image of Nazism failed, not because of the strength of the moral convictions of the professors or their faith in the professional values of the universities, but rather because of the weaknesses inherent in the ideology and organization of Nazism.(RM)

Colleges were founded in many cities of Victorian England. Some failed; others became the civic universities of twentieth-century Britain. How these civic universities were governed is described. Specifically discussed are courts, councils, trustees, faculty, powers, curriculum, appointments, finance, principals, and constitutions. (RM)

The history of US research universities during the first four decades of the twentieth century is examined. By the end of the 1920s the standard American university of 1910 had been transformed into a new pattern of professional uniformity and institutional diversity. (RM)

Discusses the use of higher education for social defense, moral improvement, and working-class acculturation in 19th-century France. (RM)

Reviews political, social, and educational influences which contributed to expansion of the Sorbonne (the University of Paris) from the late 1880s to the early 1900s, with attention to the roles of Louis Liard (dominant figure in French education) and Emile Durkheim (leading Sorbonne professor of sociology and advocate of proscientific attitudes…

Describes the political and social atmosphere at Oxford from 1823-1914. Concludes that the suspicion of student politics in the 1820s was transformed into confidence, in part because of the social homogeneity at Oxford and the administration's assumption that the undergraduates possessed responsible political views. (Author/KC)

Traces the resistance toward establishing an economics curriculum at Cambridge University from 1776 to 1860. Complex reasons include inertia, low intellectual standards, fear of being considered partisan, and avoidance of change during good times. The eventual introduction of economics was achieved only when wholesale reforms were enacted within…

Examines the effect of the university's social environment on political leaders in Mexico from 1946 to 1970. The analysis focuses on the period from 1920 to 1940 when the majority of political leaders studied at the university. Considers the implications of developing a political elite and of the isolation of potential political leaders. (KC)

Reviews policies of college officials in controlling admission of minority students (Jews, Catholics, immigrants) to selected American colleges and universities from 1900-1970. Suggests that institutions of higher education may have to justify their admission policies by submitting them to periodic public or semipublic review. (DB)