Course Description
History of American colleges and universities from 1619 to the present. Major topics include student life, European antecedents, the nature of the university, the impact of religion, the rise of athletics, the culture of collegiate life, and the influence of society.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will prepare an additional term paper.
Athena Title
HIST AMER COL & UN
Prerequisite
HIST 2111 and HIST 2112
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
In this course, we study the history of American colleges and universities from the early seventeenth century to the present. Although the course deals with the entire span of that period, strong emphasis falls on aspects of contemporary interest. For example, we will study in depth such topics as student activism, intercollegiate athletics, and other facets of social life among students. We will give particular attention to how campuses have been affected by the main currents in our national life. For example, we will discuss the impacts of war, race relations, religion, social class, and gender on the development of American colleges and universities. The course also gives attention to historical aspects of popular culture on campus. Campus fads, fashion, mascots, traditions, and architecture will all be part of the course menu. And, we will learn about colleges and universities through the music associated with college life (fight songs, alma maters, ceremonial music); through films about college life; and through a sampling of college-centered fiction. The course emphasizes the broad history of colleges and universities but also gives attention to the particular experiences of the University of Georgia during the more than two hundred years of its existence. Numerous opportunities exist for studying how the university you are attending made its mark on the historical scene. Required books (all in University bookstore): Frederick Rudolph, The American College and University: a History. 2nd ed. F.N. Boney, The University of Georgia: A Pictorial History. 2nd ed. A.S.H.E. Reader on Higher Education. 2nd edition. Course pack.
Topical Outline
Week 1. 1. Introduction to the course: A Semantic Journey from College Education to Postsecondary Education. 2. Forebearers and Precedents: the Medieval and Reformation Universities. 3. Enter Henrico and Harvard. Week 2. 1. "Hark Upon the Gale and Here's to Yale" Collegiate Foundations in Virginia and Connecticut. 2. Evangelical Christianity and the Colonial Colleges. 3. Who Ran the Eighteenth Century Colleges? Who Went to College? Week 3. 1. Revolution, Radicals, and Republicans. 2. The Early Nineteenth Century College 3. The Early Nineteenth Century Student Week 4. 1. Science, Medicine, and the Incipient University 2. UGA and the First 75 Years of a State University, Part I. 3. UGA and theFirst 75 Years of a State University, Part II. Week 5. 1. The Civil War 2. Review 3. First Examination. Week 6. 1. Intermezzo: College Music, Part I. 2. The Freedman and the American College 3. The Emergence of the University, Part I Week 7. 1. The Emergence of the University, Part II 2. Charles Eliot, William Rainey Harper, and other Prophets 3. The College in the Age of the University Week 8. 1. College and University Life in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century 2. Enter Football: Athleticism and Progressivism 3. Corporations, Capitalists, and Philanthropists: Modern Business and the University Week 9. 1. UGA in the late 19th and Early 20th Centuries 2. War and Peace: World War I and Peace Movements on Campus 3. Student Life in the 1920s and 1930s Week 10. 1. The New Woman and Higher Education in the Twentieth Century 2. Segregation and Higher Education for African-Americans, 1900-1945 3. Second Examination. Week 11. 1. World War II and the Coming of the Veterans. 2. Cold War on the Campuses 3. The Complacent 1950s? Week 12. 1. The Demise of Single Sex Education 2. The Behemoth of the 1950s and Beyond: Intercollegiate Athletics, Part I. 3. College Mascots and Other Tomfoolery. Week 13. 1. The Revolution of the 1960s, Part I. 2. The Revolution of the 1960s, Part II. 3. "Berkeley in the 60s." Film. Week 14. 1. "Ronald Reagan, Meet Bonzo:" a Collegiate Film Festival. 2. Collegiate Film Festival. 3. Collegiate Film Festival. Week 15. 1. The Demise of College Life, 1970-2000. 2. College Music, Part II.