Understanding U.S. higher education

For those involved as faculty and staff in U.S. and international higher education, it is critical to understand the purposes and the historical conditions that have shaped our current understanding of this work. Roger Geiger's The History of American Higher Education is a good resource for all college and university personnel.

While there are a number of commendable attributes of Geiger’s The History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture from the Founding to World War II (2015). The two things that are most helpful are 1) that the essence and sequence of the entire book is nicely summarized in the last chapter which is only 13 pages of the total 552 and 2) the book recounts the origins and roots of higher education in ways that reinforce the capacity building role colleges and universities played in building the embryonic democracy and fledgling economy of America. On the second point, this book could be helpful to those presently serving at international higher education sites because it both admonishes and warns through its historic narrative.

A more completely summary and review of Geiger's book is available on Pursuing Leadership.