The two most important developments in American higher education in the 20th century were, arguably, contradictory. First, building on the foundation laid by the Morrill Act of 1862, which gave federal land to states to create colleges that taught "agriculture and the mechanic arts," we created the world’s first mass higher-education system. When the Carnegie Corporation of New York was founded, in 1911, "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," fewer than 3 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 were students in institutions of higher education. About 350,000 young Americans were enrolled in fewer than 1,000 institutions of higher education.
Image: http://chronicle.com - Andrea Levy for The Chronicle Review
