The History of U.S. Higher Education ─ Methods for Understanding the Past

The first volume in the Core Concepts of Higher Education series, The History of U.S. Higher Education: Methods for Understanding the Past is a unique research methods textbook that provides students with an understanding of the processes that historians use when conducting their own research. Written primarily for graduate students in higher education programs, this book explores critical methodological issues in the history of American higher education, including race, class, gender, and sexuality. Chapters include:


Reflective Exercises that combine theory and practice
Research Method Tips
Further Reading Suggestions.

Leading historians and those at the forefront of new research explain how historical literature is discovered and written, and provide readers with the methodological approaches to conduct historical higher education research of their own.

Marybeth Gasman is an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

Introduction, Marybeth Gasman

Section I. Methodological Approaches

1. "Within These Walls": Reading and Writing Institutional Histories, Darryl L. Peterkin

2. Oral History … As Scholarship, Katherine Chaddock

3. Autobiography and Biographical Research in Higher Education, Wayne Urban

4. "No Food, No Drinks, Pencil Only": Conducting and Interpreting Archival Research, Jordan R. Humphrey

5. The Literature Review as Scholarship: Using Critical Reviews and Historiography, Linda Eisenmann

Section II. Using a New Historical Lens

6. Horizontal History and Higher Education, John R. Thelin

7. Photographs as Primary Sources, Michael Bieze

8. Quantification and Cognitive History: Applying Social Science Theory and Method to Historical Data, Jane Robbins

9. Life History and Voice: On Standpoints and Reflexivity, William G. Tierney

Section III. Critical Examinations of Special Issues
10. "Poor" Research: Historiographical Challenges When Socio-Economic Status is the Unit of Analysis, Jana Nidiffer

11. Where is Your "Home"? Writing the History of Asian Americans in Higher Education, Sharon S. Lee

12. Beyond Black & White: Researching the History of Latinos in American Higher Education, Christopher Tudico

13. Writing through the Past: Federal Higher Education Policy, Philo Hutcheson

14. The Challenge of Writing the South, Amy E. Wells-Dolan

Epilogue. A Note about Footnotes, Jane Robbins