The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education revises the
traditional interpretation of the land-grant college movement,
whose institutions were brought into being by the 1862 Morrill Act
to provide for "the liberal and practical education of the
industrial classes." Rather than being the inevitable consequence
of the unfolding dynamic of institutional and socioeconomic forces,
Williams argues, it was the active intervention and initiative of a
handful of educational leaders that secured the colleges'
future--above all, the activities of George W. Atherton.
For nearly three decades, Atherton, who was the seventh
president of the Pennsylvania State University, worked to secure
consistent federal financial support for the colleges, which in
their early years received little assistance from the states they
were designed to benefit. He also helped to develop the
institutions as comprehensive "national" universities grounded in
the liberal arts and sciences--a conception that countered the
prevailing view of the colleges as mainly agricultural schools.
Atherton became the prime mover in the campaign to enact the
1887 Hatch Act, which encouraged the establishment of agricultural
experiment stations at land-grant colleges. The act marked the
federal government's first effort to provide continuous funding to
research units associated with higher education institutions. At
the same times, Atherton played a key role in the formation of the
first association of such institutions: The Association of American
Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. It was the
Association that provided the critical mass needed to lobby
Congress successively and to approach the many opportunities and
threats the land-grant colleges faced during the 1885-1906
period.
Atherton was also deeply involved in the campaign for the
Morrill Act of 1890, which provided long-sought annual
appropriations to land-grant colleges for a broad range of academic
programs and encouraged steady growth in state support during the
1890s.
Roger Williams traces the motives and tactics behind a series of
laws that made the federal government irreversibly committed to
funding higher education and scientific research and provides rich
new insights into the complexities, polarities, and inherent
contradictions of the history of the American land-grant
movement.
General
Imprint: |
Pennsylvania State University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
April 1991 |
First published: |
1991 |
Authors: |
Roger L. Williams
(Retired)
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 20mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
284 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-271-02829-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Education >
Higher & further education >
General
|
LSN: |
0-271-02829-7 |
Barcode: |
9780271028293 |
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