The order of learning in the United States from 1865 to 1920: The ascendancy of the universities

Abstract

The history of the order of learning in the United States between the end of the Civil War and the end of the First World War may be seen largely as the history of a fundamental change in the institutional structure of learning; one particular class of institutions became dominant over other classes of learned institutions and particular institutions within that newly dominant class became especially dominant. The universities as seats of learning gained ascendancy over other institutional forms for the discovery and diffusion of knowledge. The ascendancy consisted in superiority in productivity qualitative and quantitative and in prestige. The prestige was equally prestige of institutions, prestige of works, prestige of individuals. The prestige was accorded both within the order of learning and by the wider public. The ascendancy of the academic order within the order of learning was accompanied by and in a certain measure furthered by the ascendancy of a small number of universities as the centre of the academic order.