Making Harvard Modern The Rise of America's University

by Keller, Morton; Keller, Phyllis

• ISBN13: 9780195325157
• ISBN10: 019532515X
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Early twentieth-century Harvard was the country's oldest and richest university, but not necessarily its outstanding one. By the century's end, it was widely regarded as the nation's, and the world's, leading institution of higher education. With verve, humor, and insight, Morton and Phyllis Keller tell the story of that rise: a tale of compelling personalities, notable achievement, and no less notable academic pratfalls. Their book is based on rich and revealing archival materials, interviews, and personal experience. The Kellers begin in 1933, when James Bryant Conant became Harvard's president and set out to change a Brahmin-dominated university into a meritocratic one, and they shed light on the presidencies of Nathan Marsh Pusey, Derek Bok, and Neil Rudenstine. The Kellers cover such events as the campus turbulence of the 1960s, show how the university gradually opened its doors to growing numbers of foreign students, women, African- and Asian-Americans, and Hispanics, and examine the debates over affirmative action, political correctness, and the ever higher costs of higher education. For the updated paperback edition, the authors feature a new chapter on the controversial presidency of Lawrence Summers, who put Harvard into the national spotlight during his reign, and the abolition of early admissions, which began to change university policies nationwide. The Kellers will draw on archival materials, newspaper articles, and an interview with Summers. The book will appear in time for Class Day in June. Making Harvard Modern is a candid, richly detailed portrait of America's most prominent university from 1933 to the present: seven decades of dramatic change. This fascinating account, the first comprehensive history of a modern American university, is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the present state and future course of higher education.

Author Biography

Morton Keller is Spector Professor of History at Brandeis, and has written extensively on American political and economic institutions. Phyllis Keller was the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences from the 1970s to the 1990s, and is the author of Getting at the Core, an inside look at the creation of Harvard's pioneering core curriculum.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. XI
Prologue: Fete Accompli, 1936	p. 3
"Here at Harvard": The Meritocratic University 1933-1953
James Bryant Conant and the Meritocratic University	p. 13
The Coming of Conant
The President and the Governing Boards
Conant and Meritocracy
Conant and American Education
The College	p. 32
Getting In
College Days
Stadium and Classroom
"Lesser Breeds"	p. 47
The Jewish Question
No Women Allowed...
A Different Faith
Racial (In)difference
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences	p. 64
Conant Takes Command
The Humanities
The Social Sciences
The Natural Sciences
The Professional Schools	p. 110
The Graduate School
Law
Medicine
Business
Public Health and Dentistry
Divinity and Education
Design and Public Administration
Managing Harvard	p. 134
Changing the Guard
Housekeeping
Spending: Finance and Budgets
Getting: Fund-Raising
Harvard and the Real World	p. 152
The New Deal, Refugees, and Nazism
Academic Freedom and Dissent
Harvard Goes to War
Postwar
"An Engine of Power and Responsibility": 1953-1971
Nathan Marsh Pusey and the Affluent University	p. 173
Pusey
Fund-raising
Spending
The Economics of Research
Governing the Affluent University	p. 189
An Empowered Elite
Keeping House
Icons and Iconography
The Crimson and the Reds
The Crimson and the Red, White, and Blue
The Ascendant Faculty	p. 211
The Faculty Triumphant
The Social Sciences
The Natural Sciences
The Humanities
The Professional Schools	p. 252
The Graduate School, Law, and Business
Medicine, Public Health, and Dentistry
Education, Divinity, and Design
The Kennedy School
A Plurality of Minorities	p. 276
"... loves the Irish and the Jews..."
In the Company of Women
The Black Presence
The College	p. 290
College Life
Admissions
The Culture of Student Discontent
Crisis and Recovery	p. 307
Issues and Portents
University Hall
After the Fall
Governing the Future
The King Is Dead...
"A Buzzing Confusion": 1971-2000
Derek Curtis Bok and the Worldly University	p. 341
Harvard's Bok
Worldliness
Race and Gender
Political Correctness
Internationalism
Cost and Quality
Governing	p. 359
The Old Guardians
Building Up: The Central Administration
Making and Managing Money
MATEP
There Once Was a Union Maid...
The Faculty Provoked
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences	p. 383
Leaders
The Professoriat
The Sciences
The Social Sciences
The Humanities
The Professional Schools	p. 432
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Law
Business
The Medical Area
Education, Divinity, and Design
The Kennedy School
The College	p. 464
Getting In and Paying for It
The Core and the Classroom
Campus Life
Diversity and Community
Epilogue: Today and Tomorrow 481
1986
2000
Afterword	p. 495
A Note on the Notes	p. 511
Notes	p. 515
Acknowledgments	p. 581
Index	p. 583
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