A masterful history of the postwar transformation of American higher
education
In the decades after World War II, as government and social support
surged and enrollments exploded, the role of colleges and universities
in American society changed dramatically. Roger Geiger provides an
in-depth history of this remarkable transformation, taking readers from
the GI Bill and the postwar expansion of higher education to the social
upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s, desegregation and coeducation, and the
ascendancy of the modern research university. He demonstrates how growth
has been the defining feature of modern higher education, but how each
generation since the war has pursued it for different reasons. Sweeping
in scope and richly insightful, this groundbreaking book provides the
context we need to understand the complex issues facing our colleges and
universities today, from rising inequality and skyrocketing costs to
deficiencies in student preparedness and lax educational standards.