Full Description
The nine colleges of colonial America confronted the major political currents of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while serving as the primary intellectual institutions for Puritanism and the transition to Enlightenment thought. The colleges also confronted the most partisan and divisive cultural movement of the eighteenth century—the Great Awakening.
Creating the American Mind is the first book to present a synthetic treatment of the colonial colleges, tracing their role in the intellectual development of early Americans through the Revolution. Distinguished historian J. David Hoeveler focuses on Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, the College of New Jersey (Princeton), King's College (Columbia), the College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania), Queen's College (Rutgers), the College of Rhode Island (Brown), and Dartmouth. Hoeveler pays special attention to the collegiate experience of prominent Americans, including Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison.
Written in clear and engaging prose, Creating the American Mind will be of great value to historians and educators interested in rediscovering the institutions that first fostered American intellectual thought.
Contents
Part I: Institutions
Chapter 1: Oxford and Cambridge
Chapter 2: Harvard I: School of the Puritans
Chapter 3: Yale: Precarious Orthodoxy
Chapter 4: William and Mary: Beleaguered Anglicanism
Chapter 5: The College of New Jersey: The Dangerous Middle
Chapter 6: King's College: Battle for New York
Chapter 7: The College of Philadelphia: The Perils of Neutrality
Chapter 8: Three from the Awakening: Rhode Island College, Queen's College, Dartmouth College
Chapter 9: Harvard II: A Liberal Turn
Part II: Politics, Revolution, and Intellectual Culture
Chapter 10: The Colleges and the Revolution: New England
Chapter 11: The Colleges and the Revolution: South and Middle
Postscript
