Questions why historians of education have been so reluctant to link their work more firmly to social history. As partial answers, suggests that one reason is their discomfort with current models of the development of modern society and the fact that most historians of education pursue their work with an institutional focus rather than a social…

Examines how Laurence Veysey, Stephen Brint, and Jerome Karabel have portrayed the community college and explores the differences between historical and historical-sociological methods. Focuses on recent historical scholarship to develop an historical framework for understanding community colleges. (CMK)