Synopses & Reviews
Higher Education in the American West offers the first comprehensive regional history of American higher education, examining the role of each state and subregion, and demonstrates the importance of understanding the American West's role in education nationally. It concentrates on the fifteen-state western region served by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education compact, stretching from North and South Dakota to Alaska, California, and Hawaii. Spanning the years 1818 to 2013, it narrates the ways in which state development and the establishment and growth of institutes of higher education have been intertwined. It tells how campus and state leaders advanced the West's 1,000 public and private institutions of higher learning through the rough founding pioneer days and later nineteenth-century land-grant service era to their communities and citizens, reaching contemporary acclaim as world-class research universities, despite the fiscal constraints of the current century. Twelve nationally recognized history scholars, higher education researchers, past system chancellors, current university presidents, and former federal government officials provide an engaging history of each state in the region and a comprehensive understanding of what has historically been the relationship between states and higher education in the American West. A must-read for anyone looking for an in-depth, clear, and comparative history, this volume makes clear not only the place of the American West in the history of education, but the place and value of education in the development of the American West. The companion volume, Public Policy Challenges Facing Higher Education in the American West, further explores seven current-day regional policy issues in the fifteen western states.
Synopsis
Higher Education in the American West: Regional History and State Contexts is the first comprehensive regional history of American higher education. It offers new historical research on how societal forces and state actions brought about the region's one thousand two hundred institutions of higher learning in 15 western states.
Synopsis
Higher Education in the American West offers the first comprehensive regional history of American higher education, examining the role of each state within four subregions, and demonstrates the importance of understanding the American West's role in higher education nationally. It concentrates on the fifteen-state western region served by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education compact. Spanning the years 1818 to 2013, campus and state leaders advanced the West's one thousand two hundred public and private institutions of higher learning through the rough founding pioneer days and later nineteenth-century land-grant expansion era to their communities and citizens, reaching contemporary acclaim as world-class research universities during the contemporary service era. The companion volume,
Public Policy Challenges Facing Higher Education in the American West, further explores seven current-day regional policy issues in the fifteen western states.
About the Author
Lester F. Goodchild is Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Educatio at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA.
Richard W. Jonsen is former Executive Director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, USA.
Patty Limerick is Faculty Director and Chair of the Board of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA, where she is also Professor of History.
David A. Longanecker is President of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, USA.
Table of Contents
Editors' Preface
Introduction; Lester F. Goodchild, Richard W. Jonsen, Patty Limerick, and David A. Longanecker
PART I: REGIONAL HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE VIEWS
1. Western College Expansion: Churches and Evangelization, States and Boosterism, 1818-1945; Lester F. Goodchild and David M. Wrobel
2. The Evolution of Institutions in the Westward Expansion; Arthur M. Cohen
3. Forty-Five Years in the Academic Saddle: The American West, Higher Education, and the Invitation to Innovation; Patty Limerick
PART II: STATE DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES AND FEDERAL INFLUENCES, 1945-2013
4. Middle Border Region: Higher Education in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming; Jason E. Lane and Francis J. Kerins, Sr.
5. History of Higher Education in the Southwest since World War II: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah; William E. 'Bud' Davis
6. Higher Education in the Pacific West: Developments in Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska; William E. 'Bud' Davis, Lester F. Goodchild, and David A. Tandberg
7. Higher Education in California: Rise and Fall; Patrick M. Callan
8. The Federal Government and Western Higher Education; David A. Longanecker
PART III: A CONCLUDING COMMENTARY
9. Afterword - Understanding the First Regional History of American Higher Education: The Spirit of Innovation; Lester F. Goodchild