Gentlemen and Scholars

This book provides a new look at the social and cultural roles of the American college after the Civil War. Historians have dubbed the period from the Civil War to World War I "the age of the university," suggesting that colleges were becoming out of touch with American society. Bruce Leslie however challenges this view through case studies of four representative colleges from the Middle Atlantic region—Bucknell, Franklin and Marshall, Princeton, and Swarthmore. Nineteenth-century colleges generally were founded to serve ethnic, denominational, and local interests. After mid-century, however, many were forced to seek financial support from wealthy alumni and urban benefactors, leading to the gradual reorientation of these schools toward an emerging national urban Protestant culture. Colleges therefore found it essential to respond to new currents in American society and higher education. Leslie develops his argument from a close study of faculties, curricula, financial constituencies, student bodies, and campus life.