The Emergence of the American University: An International Perspective

In 1979, fourteen years after publishing his landmark work, "The Emergence of the American University," Laurence R. Veysey wrote a forward-looking article for the "American Quarterly" titled "The Autonomy of American History Reconsidered." In his article, Veysey suggested that the time had come to rewrite American history from a more international point of view. Challenging theories of American exceptionalism and national distinctiveness, Veysey called for more detailed comparisons of the cultural, political, and economic development of the world's industrialized democracies. In this article, the author discusses Veysey's treatment of the history of the American university. Historians of American higher education, including Veysey, have long recognized the degree to which the development of the "American" research university depended on international scholarly exchange. The author also discusses the historians' perspectives of the history of American University. (Contains 24 footnotes.)