The European and American University since 1800
The European and American University since 1800
Bjorn Wittrock, Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden
Universities are said to be the "powerhouses" of modern society. They educate our leaders and advance our basic knowledge of nature and society. The essays in this book discuss how universities work, and have worked, in relation to other parts of the higher education "system" and in the context of their historical development. The authors are particularly interested in "complexity" as it affects universities, the professions and government, and exercise comparative analysis in assessing the functioning, the success and the significance of universities.
- Sheldon Rothblatt's name is internationally known and respected: he is the author of several 'famous' books (including The Revolution of the Dons (1968, reissued 1981), and is one of the world's leading historians of education
- The volume is strongly comparative and inter disciplinary, and aims to tackle problems in recent and contemporary university history on a broad European/US front
- A previous comparable volume published by the Press in 1987, The Rise of the Modern Educational System, has sold well over 1100 copies in paperback: there is an excellent professional market for top-quality books of this kind
Reviews & endorsements
"...the essays in The European and American University Since 1800...provide important assessments of how ideas and policy interventions by governments brought about change." Campbell F. Lloyd, Journal of Urban History
"...the various chapters provide useful insights....it is hard to imagine the reader who would not find some new insights in a collection of papers as diverse as this one." East/West Education
"...a serious historical and sociological overview of the subject....worth browsing through, if only to gain some understanding of the widely different fundamental assumptions underlying European and American universities." Journal of Academic Librarianship
"The topics addressed in this volume hold considerable importance for contemporary public policy and university politics, just as they represent key dynamics in the shaping of the modern university....Consumed slowly and deliberatley, it constitutes a satisfying meal. The richness and complementary flavors may be difficult to appreciate second-hand, but the patient, highly motivated reader should find the intellectual investment worthwhile." Janet Rasmussen, Scandanavian Studies
"This book ...takes history very seriously and is the sworn enemy of oversimplified assessments of university development, past and present...This is a substantive anthology." Histoire sociale
Product details
November 2006Paperback
9780521031103
384 pages
228 × 152 × 21 mm
0.593kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Notes on the contributors
- Introduction: universities and 'higher education' Sheldon Rothblatt and Björn Wittrock
- Part I. Fact and Ideals in Liberal Education:
- 1. The limbs of Osiris: liberal education in the English-speaking world Sheldon Rothblatt
- 2. In search of Isis: general education in Germany and Sweden Sven-Eric Liedman
- Part II. The State, the University, and the Professions:
- 3. The transformation of professional education in the nineteenth century Rolf Torstendahl
- 4. From practise to school-based professional education: patterns of conflict and accommodation in England, France and the United States Michael Burrage
- Part III. The Ambiguities of University Research in Sweden and the United States:
- 5. Universities, research, and the transformation of the state in Sweden Aant Elzinga
- 6. Research, graduate education, and the ecology of American universities: an interpretative history Roger Geiger
- Part IV. Complexity:
- 7. The problem of complexity in modern higher education Burton R. Clark
- 8. Comparative perspectives on British and American higher education Martin Trow
- Part V. The Ironies of University History:
- 9. The modern university: the three transformations Björn Wittrock
- Index.
