Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorAlexander, Philip N.
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-21T15:10:13Z
dc.date.available2022-02-21T15:10:13Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.identifierONIX_20220221_9780262295406_28
dc.identifier.urihttps://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/78508
dc.description.abstractHow MIT's first nine presidents helped transform the Institute from a small technical school into a major research university. MIT was founded in 1861 as a polytechnic institute in Boston's Back Bay, overshadowed by its neighbor across the Charles River, Harvard University. Harvard offered a classical education to young men of America's ruling class; the early MIT trained men (and a few women) from all parts of society as engineers for the nation's burgeoning industries. Over the years, MIT expanded its mission and ventured into other fields—pure science, social science, the humanities—and established itself in Cambridge as Harvard's enduring rival. InA Widening Sphere, Philip Alexander traces MIT's evolution from polytechnic to major research institution through the lives of its first nine presidents, exploring how the ideas, outlook, approach, and personality of each shaped the school's intellectual and social cultures. Alexander describes, among otherthings, the political skill and entrepreneurial spirit of founder and first president, William Rogers; institutional growing pains under John Runkle; Francis Walker's campaign to broaden the curriculum, especially in the social sciences, and to recruit first-rate faculty; James Crafts, whose heart lay in research, not administration; Henry Pritchett's thwarted effort to merge with Harvard (after which he decamped to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching); Richard Maclaurin's successful strategy to move the institute to Cambridge, after considering other sites (including a golfclub in Brighton); the brilliant, progressive Ernest Nichols, who succumbed to chronic illness and barely held office; Samuel Stratton's push towards a global perspective; and Karl Compton's vision for a new kind of Institute—a university polarized around science and technology. Through these interlocking yet independent portraits, Alexander reveals the inner workings of a complex and dynamic community of innovators.
dc.languageEnglish
dc.relation.ispartofseriesThe MIT Press
dc.subject.classificationbic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JN Education::JNM Higher & further education, tertiary education::JNMN Universities
dc.subject.classificationbic Book Industry Communication::T Technology, engineering, agriculture::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering & technology
dc.subject.classificationbic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JN Education::JNB History of education
dc.subject.otherHigher and further education, tertiary education
dc.subject.otherHistory of engineering and technology
dc.subject.otherHistory of education
dc.titleA Widening Sphere
dc.title.alternativeEvolving Cultures at MIT
dc.typebook
oapen.identifier.doi10.7551/mitpress/8361.001.0001
oapen.relation.isPublishedByae0cf962-f685-4933-93d1-916defa5123d
oapen.relation.isbn9780262295406
oapen.relation.isbn9780262015639
oapen.imprintThe MIT Press
oapen.pages520
oapen.place.publicationCambridge


Files in this item

FilesSizeFormatView

There are no files associated with this item.

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0