Current Issue

Articles

The Initial Reception of MIT, 1860s-1880s by A. J. Angulo
This article examines one understudied aspect of the founding of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: its initial reception. Through an analysis of three addresses on the establishment of MIT and the responses they elicited, this essay seeks to develop a fuller understanding of the Institute’s origins as nested within a broader culture conflict in mid-nineteenth century America.

Noah Porter Revisited by George Levesque
This article reexamines the educational leadership of Noah Porter (1811-1892), moral philosopher and president of Yale College from 1871 to 1886. During an age of tremendous expansion in higher education, Porter resisted the rise of the new research university, claiming that an eager embrace of its ideals would corrupt undergraduate education. Many of Porter’s contemporaries criticized his administration, and historians since have disparaged his leadership, but I offer a different interpretation. I argue that he was not a simple-minded reactionary, uncritically committed to tradition, but a principled and selective conservative. He did not endorse everything old or reject everything new; rather, he sought to apply long-established ethical and pedagogical principles to a rapidly changing culture. He may have misunderstood some of the challenges of his time, but I argue that he correctly anticipated the enduring tensions that have accompanied the emergence and growth of the modern university.

For Education and Employment: The American Federation of Teachers and Academic Freedom, 1926-1941 by Timothy Reese Cain
This article examines the American Federation of Teachers’ attempts to define and defend academic freedom in the years before World War II.  It argues that the union’s efforts were important for both what they accomplished and for what they indicated about the organization, its priorities, its political activities, and its internal divisions.  During the 1920s and 1930s, the AFT increasingly attended to both larger issues of educational liberty and individual cases, bringing itself into conflict with the American Association of University Professors and others who questioned its motives and activities.  Although it did not achieve its goal of becoming the leading faculty organization in the period, the AFT did influence the development of modern policies and the mechanisms to protect academic freedom.

Conservatism Goes to College: The Role of Philanthropic Foundations in the Rise of Conservative Student Networks by Jennifer de Forest
This study demonstrates how “The Four Sisters,” a group of conservative philanthropic foundations, forged durable connections with American higher education by investing in conservative student networks.  It shows how these networks, including the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Federalist Society, graduated students who extended their influence beyond campus and into American politics and culture. The author rejects the idea that conservative foundations somehow bought a movement, arguing instead that a vibrant post-WWII conservative movement inspired both students and philanthropists.  In conclusion, she suggests that successful philanthropy, whether liberal or conservative, is often ideological.

Nicholas Murray Butler, James McKeen Cattell, and the Educational Review: Footnote to a Famous Feud by Paul M. McInerny
The clash between Nicholas Murray Butler and James McKeen Cattell at Columbia University over academic freedom has been well documented.  However, a final encounter of theirs has drawn little attention.  Both men advanced their reputations through the growing field of academic journals.  Butler launched the Educational Review in 1891 and it earned recognition in 1900 as being one of the best in the world and garnered a large following. The article examines how Butler used the Educational Review to advance his ideas and build his reputation as well as the journal’s demise through its treatment and coverage of the National Education Association.  After Butler relinquished control of the journal it continually diminished in quality under several publishers and editors.  Despite the protests of its founder to simply shut down the Educational Review, it was eventually handed over to Cattell and merged into his School and Society journal.

Selected Recent Dissertations in the History of Higher Education

Contact Transaction Publishers to order Volume 26 or other back issues.