The Civil War transformed American life. Not only did thousands
of men die on battlefields and millions of slaves become free;
cultural institutions reshaped themselves in the context of the war
and its aftermath. The first book to examine the Civil War's
immediate and long-term impact on higher education, "Reconstructing
the Campus "begins by tracing college communities' responses to the
secession crisis and the outbreak of war. Students made supplies
for the armies or left campus to fight. Professors joined the war
effort or struggled to keep colleges open. The Union and
Confederacy even took over some campuses for military use.
Then moving beyond 1865, the book explores the war's long-term
effects on colleges. Michael David Cohen argues that the Civil War
and the political and social conditions the war created prompted
major reforms, including the establishment of a new federal role in
education. Reminded by the war of the importance of a well-trained
military, Congress began providing resources to colleges that
offered military courses and other practical curricula. Congress
also, as part of a general expansion of the federal bureaucracy
that accompanied the war, created the Department of Education to
collect and publish data on education. For the first time, the U.S.
government both influenced curricula and monitored
institutions.
The war posed special challenges to Southern colleges. Often
bereft of students and sometimes physically damaged, they needed to
rebuild. Some took the opportunity to redesign themselves into the
first Southern universities. They also admitted new types of
students, including the poor, women, and, sometimes, formerly
enslaved blacks. Thus, while the Civil War did great harm, it also
stimulated growth, helping, especially in the South, to create our
modern system of higher education.
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