"Should American colleges and universities serve the public good? It all depends on what we mean by 'the public,'of course, and what we imagine would be 'good'   for it. Adam Nelson has produced the first full history of how Americans established and funded higher education, and--especially--of how they deliberated its fundamental purposes. From now on, anyone who wants understand that debate--or to enter into it themselves--will have to consult this groundbreaking book."

Jonathan Zimmerman, University of Pennsylvania

“This book and its companion, Exchange of Ideas, represent a monumental achievement. They will fundamentally alter how we understand virtually every feature of US higher education during more than a century of its history. Nelson’s work will cause a major splash and encourage readers to radically alter their views of the educational landscape before the Civil War. With these books, the history of American colleges and universities will never again look the same.”
 

Andrew Jewett, Johns Hopkins University

“Adam Nelson’s dazzling study of the capitalist roots of the modern American university unearths the links between ideas and institutions, knowledge and politics, states and nations, and higher education’s past and present. This is a field redefining work.”

Christopher Loss, Vanderbilt University