Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America's University

Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America's University. By Morton Keller and Phyllis Keller. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. xiv, 578 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-19-514457-0.)

The contrast between Harvard University and America has been widely invoked by scholars and editorial writers. Harvard's history and traditions have always set it apart from the rest of higher education-its unique governing structure, coziness with the Boston elite, and current $18 billion endowment. But Harvard has also led U.S. universities in crucially important ways. This comprehensive and fully documented study by Morton Keller and Phyllis Keller captures both the parochial and the avant-garde character of Harvard since the 1930s.

In three parallel sections, the volume treats the "meritocratic university" of James B. Conant (1933-1953), the "affluent university" of Nathan Pusey (1953-1971),...