The Founding of Harvard College (Paperback)

~ (Author), Hugh Hawkins (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is a reprint of a 1935 classic history of the early years of Harvard College, which is now available in paperback. The author, Samuel Eliot Morison, was professor of history at Harvard University and winner of two Pulitzer prizes. Aside from the history of Harvard College, this book is important for its focus on the European background, including the roots of American universities in Europe. In addition, the book is fascinating...Although it was written over sixty years ago, this book is still an important source for the early history of American education, and it is a tribute to the historiographical skills of the author. (Historical Journal of Massachusetts )

From reviews of the original edition:
Morison here traces the roots of American universities in Europe, as they have perhaps never been traced before; and with mellow erudition, frequent flashes of wit, and a lively contemporary perspective, he sketches in a realistic picture of the founding of the first American university north of the Rio Grande...[His] book is worthy of the story he has to tell...Any who want to understand the history of American education, or such simple but fascinating matters as the origins of our words 'bachelor,' 'yard,' and 'campus,' 'freshman,' 'sophomore,' 'junior,' and 'senior,' of the doctoral degree and its transfer, from the Continent via America, to England, will have to consult it and be abundantly rewarded.
--Lewis Gannett (New York Herald Tribune )

A history which for combination of accurate scholarship, importance of subject matter, interpretation of relationship to general cultural development, and literary distinction, cannot be excelled by that of any other university, European or American...The academic world of America is under a debt of real gratitude to Morison. (American Historical Review )

About the Author

Samuel Eliot Morison was Professor of History at Harvard University. His books won two Pulitzer Prizes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (August 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674314514
• ISBN-13: 978-0674314511
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #828,476 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "First flower of their wilderness", April 6, 2001

By	R. J. O'Hara - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Harvard University was founded in 1636 and it is the oldest university in what is now the United States. Its traditions and organizational structure have had a profound influence on the development of higher education in America, and many of its graduates have been prominent figures in the history of the nation and the world. Samuel Eliot Morison, a member of Harvard's class of 1908 and one of the great American historians of the mid-twentieth century, wrote this book as a tribute to his alma mater on the occasion of its 300th anniversary. It was first published in 1935 and has been kept in print ever since.

Most universities have some sort of brochure or booklet that "tells their story," but this is no simple volume of that kind. In Morison's hands what might have been a narrow institutional account becomes a work of remarkably comprehensive scholarship. The founding of Harvard itself doesn't even appear until page 161, not until after Morison has treated the founding of universities in the Middle Ages, the story of Oxford and Cambridge in England, the intellectual development of early modern Europe, the rise of Puritanism, the social and economic climate of the early American colonies, and daily life in seventeenth-century New England.

The text is beautifully supplemented with many early woodcuts and engravings, as well as with modern maps and overlays showing the history of Harvard's buildings and grounds. And even beyond the main text, several lengthy appendices describe early New England immigrants who had university training, seventeenth-century publications on the history of the college, and the Spanish universities of Latin America that were modeled on the University of Salamanca. (Harvard is the oldest university in North America, but not in the Americas; that distinction today goes to the University of San Marcos in Lima, founded in 1551.)

If you enjoy the intellectual history of Europe, the history of education, the history of colonial America, stories of daily life in the seventeenth century, or if you are a Harvard graduate, you will derive much pleasure from Morison's rich and graceful volume.