Foto dell'autore
33+ opere 781 membri 5 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Serie

Opere di James Axtell

Indian Missions: A Critical Bibliography (1978) — Autore — 7 copie

Opere correlate

American Heritage Magazine Vol 28 No 3 1977 April (1977) — Collaboratore — 15 copie
The Story of America: Beginnings to 1914 (2006) — Collaboratore, alcune edizioni6 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Nome legale
Axtell, James L.
Data di nascita
1941-12-20
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
USA
Luogo di nascita
Endicott, New York, USA
Istruzione
University of Cambridge (Trinity) (PhD|1967)
Yale University (AB|1963)
Attività lavorative
historian
professor
Organizzazioni
College of William and Mary
Premi e riconoscimenti
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Fellow)
Breve biografia
William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities, Department of History, College of William and Mary

Utenti

Recensioni

Axtell starts his history with Cambridge and Oxford (“Oxbridge”), with English colleges mainly training men for the clergy. Later they became places where the aristocracy sent their sons so that they could find jobs as diplomats or other government posts. From there he goes to the very first college in America, created to educate men for the clergy. Grammar schools proliferated in America right before the Civil War, creating people adequately educated to go to college. He follows the change of colleges as places of rote learning and religious instruction into places that encouraged exploration, experimentation, and research rather than memorizing scripture. Colleges expanded across the USA and became universities that were expected to turn out new findings and technology. The land grant universities are given merely a quick nod. The world war and the GI Bill changed the faces of the universities, as adults filled colleges rather than teenagers. The universities turned into tools of the government, turning out weapons along with economists, scientists, and future legislators.

The book is what it says it is; a history of the universities, with heavy emphasis on the USA. It’s very detailed but pretty dry. I would have liked to see what universities, like Cambridge and Oxford, in other countries had turned into as the ones in the US matured. Sure they have not stagnated for three hundred years. What about the German system that attracted so many students from the US in years before the American system got going? Interesting book but very specialized.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
lauriebrown54 | Jul 26, 2016 |
Interesting, readable narrative of the contest between Britain and France, with American Indian involvement, for control of North America. Axtell focuses on the contest of ideas rather than the usual military history, and suggests that the Indians were the most successful at making "converts." He views the French and Indians as "two wily foxes" against the British lion. Spain belongs in the book, too, but Axtell omits it for reasons of expediency (i.e., the book would have taken another decade or so to complete).… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Muscogulus | 1 altra recensione | Jul 29, 2012 |
 
Segnalato
WWPL | Apr 6, 2017 |

Premi e riconoscimenti

Potrebbero anche piacerti

Autori correlati

Statistiche

Opere
33
Opere correlate
4
Utenti
781
Popolarità
#32,597
Voto
½ 3.6
Recensioni
5
ISBN
50
Lingue
1

Grafici & Tabelle