Centuries of Childhood. A Social History of Family Life

TLDR

The historiography of higher education now demands that these questions be answered rather than left unresolved in an 800‑page volume. The study investigates the historical role of Catholic colleges, community colleges, and state university relations in Pennsylvania, examining academic freedom, economic and social influences, democratic implications, student activism, faculty composition, and the tension between piety and intellect.

Abstract

What was the role of the Catholic colleges in urban social mobility? Why has Pennsylvania a mediocre record in the development of community colleges? What has been the history of Pennsylvania State University's relations with the state legislature and with the University of Pennsylvania? What has been the career of academic freedom in Pennsylvania? How did the changing economic and social life of the commonwealth shape the higher learning, and vice versa? What does the record of higher education in Pennsylvania tell about democracy in Pennsylvania? To what extent were the colleges and universities significantly influenced not by conscious administrative decision but by student action? Who taught in these institutions and what did they teach? How did the struggle between piety and intellect go in Pennsylvania? At this moment in the historiography of higher education the answers to these questions should not remain a mystery at the end of a book that runs to more than 800 pages.