Book Review: The Making of the Modern University - Julie A. Reuben
American higher education has slowly been refined to the present model, rich with choice and loosely held together by a common moral standard. The purpose of education has been changed since the establishment of the colonial colleges; likewise, the collegiate experience and curriculum also transformed to meet the demands of society over the past few centuries. Author Julie A. Reuben addresses these changes in The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality, published in 1996 through Chicago University Press. This book combines her doctoral dissertation with additional research to tell a story about how the colonial colleges from the seventeenth century slowly developed into modern American universities. Reuben combines general analyses of cultural and intellectual shifts with case studies from eight specific universities: California at Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Stanford, and Yale (9).
Reuben’s thesis posits that changes in academia and the ideal of truth were interconnected: “the rejection of the broad conception of truth, encompassing both knowledge and morality, was closely tied to changes in educational and scholarly practices” (3). Furthermore, Reuben proposes that both institutional and intellectual needs interacted throughout history to propel educational reform (8). Within this framework, Reuben presents a detailed analysis of the secularization of morality and the ensuing drift away from religious higher education, despite consistent efforts to reconcile intellect and religion. In the final chapter, Reuben ties together her research on the loss of morality in higher education with a single statement: “the rejection of the standardized curriculum of the classical college was the most obvious reason for the loss of unity and moral purpose” (231). The seven preceding chapters illustrate, with great detail, the changes in society, science, and religion that led to the decreased emphasis on moral development in higher education.
Reuben opens the book by describing the ideal of the unity of truth as viewed by philosophers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Religion and science were compatible in this era, which was important to the unity of truth. When evidence from different spheres supported the same truths, the truths were held in high regard as ethical and aesthetic standards. However, science continued to advance, and certain theories (e.g., evolution) forced academics to reconsider the compatibility of science and religion. Reuben devotes the second chapter to discussing how the changes in scientific thought, methodology, and goals in the nineteenth century contributed to the separation of science, theology, and religion. Reuben’s illustrations show every attempt to reconcile science and religion was unsuccessful, which unintentionally led to the loss of morality in higher education.
Reuben proceeds to demonstrate how university reforms were driven by two questions: 1) What is the purpose of education? and 2) Who does a university serve? Because science drove progress, it was perceived as a human good. Universities developed programs in the sciences and funded research laboratories while focusing less on classical curriculum. Reformers recognized the value of scientific thinking and attempted to teach students to think critically in courses outside of the sciences. The social sciences developed and flourished in this time. Social scientists and biologists contributed to morality through their focus on current societal issues, including politics, eugenics, and health reform. Free inquiry in colleges was associated with the development of the elective system and the shift towards nonsectarian education, though administrators still wanted to maintain some connection to religion. Some tension arose between faculty and administrators. Faculty valued research more than teaching, which negatively impacted student learning. Additionally, administrators were forced to create policies that balanced academic freedom and good moral character for faculty hiring and firing decisions, since researchers were finding that increasingly, faculty had the greatest impact on students’ moral development. Reuben highlights the ways universities adapted to serve both faculty and students, often leaning towards actions that minimized potential for conflict.
Throughout the book, Reuben explores the ways in which university leaders attempted to make religion more appealing by removing devotional content and unappealing dogma. This, in turn, caused the marginalization and eventual disappearance of religion on college campuses. Many religious activities, such as morning prayers or daily chapel, were made voluntary; student attendance decreased, which led to further reduction of religious activities. Religious elements were also removed from coursework, instead supplemented with scientific inquiry; for example, students studied the Bible as a work of literature rather than to gain spiritual or moral insights. Over the twentieth century, religion’s place on campus was diminished. Reformers thought faculty mentoring and extracurricular activities would adequately develop students’ morality. Reuben writes that morality became equated with morale, and morale eventually won out (264, 265). Extracurricular offerings, which originally served as a substitute for the moral development offered by religion, became an end rather than a means. Reuben concludes the book by implying that we have perhaps overcompensated with nonsectarian efforts in an attempt to avoid conflict and cannot backtrack to a place where religion and science peacefully coexisted. However, current leaders should learn to embrace conflict as a means for progress and continue attempting to find a way for “fact and value” (269), or scientific inquiry and ethics, to work together in the moral development of college students.
Reuben writes skillfully and without bias. She often supports a historical argument by saying a certain group of people maintained a specific belief about a topic (e.g., “University reformers still believed that all knowledge taught in the university would ultimately agree” [73]); such attributions clarify whose perspective is being shared. Within the main body of the book, Reuben’s personal feelings or beliefs about the reformation of higher education and knowledge are virtually undetectable. Reuben shares her personal assertions and impressions only in the introduction and conclusion, thereby presenting the history in an unbiased manner.
At times, Reuben’s illustrations seemed tangential or irrelevant. It is helpful to know how certain prominent figures (e.g., Noah Porter or Charles Eliot) handled some of the conflicts of their time because their actions and publications influenced subsequent leaders. However, there are several illustrations that did not necessarily enhance Reuben’s argument, as these individuals impacted just their institution rather than a majority of higher education practitioners. For example, in Chapter 7, Reuben spends a few paragraphs discussing changes in funding for the art department at Columbia University. While intriguing, this illustration does not necessarily extrapolate to other universities to validate her points that the humanities were becoming more prevalent on college campuses or that morality was being redefined.
While the text provides an incredibly thorough exploration of many concepts, there are a few sections that could be further expanded. The final two chapters, which highlight the expansion of the humanities and the evolution of co-curricular education, feel superficial compared to the depth offered in the preceding chapters. The chapter on the humanities is not well integrated with the rest of the text. While Reuben highlights the ways educators in the humanities advocated for how their discipline contributed to the moral development of college students, she does not show how the humanities shaped extracurricular activities or general education curriculum like she did with the natural and social sciences. Additionally, the last chapter provided only a brief overview of higher education in the early twentieth century. Reuben makes a few references to how the World Wars affected scientific inquiry and curriculum but does not elaborate on the continued refining of scientific and ethical education. Finally, there was little focus on how students experienced higher education reform. Reuben writes from an administrative, authoritarian perspective, highlighting scholars and administrators in each time period. Reuben’s arguments could be strengthened if she included examples of student feedback that progressed some of the reforms (e.g., why chapel attendance decreased when voluntary). Reuben occasionally mentions student perspectives but could include more descriptions of the dynamic interaction between student desires and reformers’ actions, especially in the final chapter that focuses on extracurricular experiences that were primarily student-initiated.
The Making of the Modern University would be a helpful read for any student or educator desiring to understand the history of higher education reform through the lens of the changing dynamic of science, religion, or morality. Students in the sciences, especially at religious institutions, might gain insight into the importance of their curriculum in light of the way their specific program reconciled religion and science. For such students, this book, or at least excerpts, could guide discussions in a capstone or ethics course. Any historian or university administrator seeking to understand the history of higher education reform, perhaps to influence their own work, should also consult this book.
Higher education has continued to shift and change in the 24 years since Reuben’s book was published. Sometimes a single event caused a drastic shift, while other changes occurred slowly, nearly imperceptibly, until we look back and grieve what used to be, as did commentators from the early 1900s who mourned the loss of classical education. Administrators are continually navigating the tension of refining their university to meet the demands of modern society while also being bound by the current model of higher education shaped by centuries of reform. The Making of the Modern University offers one perspective on the origin of the loss of morality which might be useful for leaders wanting to address underlying issues in higher education. Ultimately, Reuben notes, modern reformers must continue to work together to integrate fact and value in returning moral education to universities.
