The Modern University and its Discontents

A study of how the university in Britain and America has developed in relation to government and society.

This is a study of how the internal culture of British and American universities has been shaped over the course of two centuries in relation to such external factors as government, the economy, society and culture. John Henry Newman's classic work The Idea of a University provides entry and exit points for this study of the modern university.This series of interlinked essays takes the form of historical 'voyages' around the Victorian intellectual John Henry Newman, and Newman's classic work The Idea of a University, as well as changes in the structure and culture of universities which occurred in Newman's lifetime. The voyages connect nineteenth- and twentieth-century university history, mainly in Britain and the United States but with side excursions to continental Europe. Among the many important topics discussed are the history of student communities in Oxford and Cambridge, the growth of a modern examinations culture, university architecture and the use of space in connection with educational ideals, urbanism and universities, and the competition of states, markets and academic guilds for the control of universities and the right to define the missions of university professors.