Synopses & Reviews
Throughout the twentieth century, public universities were established across the United States at a dizzying pace, transforming the scope and purpose of American higher education. Leading the way was California, with its internationally renowned network of public colleges and universities. This book is the first comprehensive history of Californias pioneering efforts to create an expansive and high-quality system of public higher education.
The author traces the social, political, and economic forces that established and funded an innovative, uniquely tiered, and geographically dispersed network of public campuses in California. This influential model for higher education, “The California Idea,” created an organizational structure that combined the promise of broad access to public higher education with a desire to develop institutions of high academic quality. Following the story from early statehood through to the politics and economic forces that eventually resulted in the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education, The California Idea and American Higher Education offers a carefully crafted history of public higher education.
Review
"This book offers persuasive and in many ways unprecedented history of the policy debates that gave California one of the most comprehensive and influential public university systems in the world. . . . Douglass's important work offers a basis for considering both the remarkable strengths of Progressive university building and the antidemocratic elements that, contrary to conventional wisdom, may be the source of its increasing weakness today."American Literature
Review
"Douglass has made a long-needed contribution. Those who study and work in higher education will profit from readitng this carefully constructed history."Journal of the West
Review
"California exceptionalism is a very real thing, but its essence has always been elusive. Not so in the case of John Douglass' treatment of California higher education. He has captured brilliantly the economic, political, and social roots of that remarkable system. His work will help us all."Neil Smelser, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California
Review
"John Douglass has succeeded in one of the most difficult of scholarly challengespresenting a large and complex topic with remarkable clarity, insight, and narrative skill. is fascinating history and a significant contribution to our understanding of the people and the forces that created California's renowned system of higher education."Richard C. Atkinson, President of the University of California
Synopsis
"California exceptionalism is a very real thing, but its essence has always been elusive. Not so in the case of John Douglass' treatment of California higher education. He has captured brilliantly the economic, political, and social roots of that remarkable system. His work will help us all.”—Neil Smelser, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California
"For those interested in the University of California, in higher education throughout the state, and—above all—for anyone concerned about life in this country's higher education systems, John Douglass' book is a must read. He brings history, thoughtful perspective, and marvelous creative intelligence to a very tricky set of issues, and we will be leaning upon his insights for many years."—Barry Munitz, President, The J. Paul Getty Trust, and former Chancellor of the California State University system
Synopsis
This is the first comprehensive history of California's pioneering effort to create an expansive and high-quality system of public higher education. Throughout this century, states established public colleges and universities at a dizzying pace, funding enrollment expansion to fit their perceived economic and social needs, and launching a truly dramatic experiment in social engineering. The result was a transformation of the scope and purpose of American higher education, and leading the way was California, with its internationally renowned network of public colleges and universities.
Synopsis
This is the first comprehensive history of California's pioneering effort to create an expansive and high-quality system of public higher education. California differed significantly from most other states in its early development of a coherent organizational structure for public higher education. In the Progressive Era, California established and funded an innovative, uniquely tiered, and geographically dispersed network of public colleges and a multicampus state university. The author traces the social, political, and economic forces that shaped public higher education in California, and depicts its major personalities - such as David Starr Jordan, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Hiram Johnson, Earl Warren, and Clark Kerr. The result is a carefully crafted history of California public higher education from statehood to the politics and economic forces that eventually resulted in the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education.
Synopsis
The first comprehensive history of California's pioneering effort to create an expansive and high-quality system of public higher education. Traces the social, political, and economic forces that shaped public higher education in California, and depicts its major personalities, from statehood to the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 409-434) and index.
About the Author
"This book offers persuasive and in many ways unprecedented history of the policy debates that gave California one of the most comprehensive and influential public university systems in the world. . . . Douglass's important work offers a basis for considering both the remarkable strengths of Progressive university building and the antidemocratic elements that, contrary to conventional wisdom, may be the source of its increasing weakness today."American Literature"Douglass has made a long-needed contribution. Those who study and work in higher education will profit from readitng this carefully constructed history."Journal of the West"California exceptionalism is a very real thing, but its essence has always been elusive. Not so in the case of John Douglass' treatment of California higher education. He has captured brilliantly the economic, political, and social roots of that remarkable system. His work will help us all."Neil Smelser, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California"For those interested in the University of California, in higher education throughout the state, andabove allfor anyone concerned about life in this country's higher education systems, John Douglass' book is a must read. He brings history, thoughtful perspective, and marvelous creative intelligence to a very tricky set of issues, and we will be leaning upon his insights for many years."Barry Munitz, President, The J. Paul Getty Trust, and former Chancellor of the California State University system"John Douglass has succeeded in one of the most difficult of scholarly challengespresenting a large and complex topic with remarkable clarity, insight, and narrative skill. <The California Idea and American Higher Education> is fascinating history and a significant contribution to our understanding of the people and the forces that created California's renowned system of higher education." Richard C. Atkinson, President of the University of California
Table of Contents
Introduction: California and a great American movement; 1. Statehood and the idea of a university; 2. A fourth branch of government; 3. Progressives and the California idea; 4. The promise of mass higher education and the junior college; 5. The depression and a regional college movement; 6. Postwar planning and higher education; 7. Rising costs, the red scare, and the end of the postwar consensus; 8. The commodity of education and the race for new campuses; 9. Governor Brown, Clark Kerr, and the demand for reform; 10. Negotiating the master plan and the fate of higher education in California; 11. Selling the plan and the beginning of a new era; Epilogue: the master plan legacy; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.