Utopian Universities - by Miles Taylor & Jill Pellew (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In a remarkable decade of public investment in higher education, some 200 new university campuses were established worldwide between 1961 and 1970. This volume offers a comparative and connective global history of these institutions, illustrating how their establishment, intellectual output and pedagogical experimentation sheds light on the social and cultural topography of the long 1960s.

With an impressive geographic coverage - using case studies from Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia - the book explores how these universities have influenced academic disciplines and pioneered new types of teaching, architectural design and student experience. From educational reform in West Germany to the establishment of new institutions with progressive, interdisciplinary curricula in the Commonwealth, the illuminating case studies of this volume demonstrate how these universities shared in a common cause: the embodiment of 'utopian' ideals of living, learning and governance.

At a time when the role of higher education is fiercely debated, Utopian Universities is a timely and considered intervention that offers a wide-ranging, historical dimension to contemporary predicaments.

Review Quotes

"A highly readable, well-informed and authoritative account of a crucial period in the development of higher education in the UK and globally." --Jon Nixon, Visiting Professor, Middlesex University, UK

"With so much valuable first-hand insight, this book will undoubtedly serve as a useful reference on the ways in which different countries and their academics responded to the challenge of creating universities for the mid twentieth century, as a starting point for those looking to take a more comparative approach to this period in higher education." --Oxford Magazine

"This welcome book brings together the perspectives of several historians who look at higher education's recent past, back about 60 years. ... Most compelling is the tone of the contributing authors." --Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education

"By focusing on the new campuses of the 1960s, and seeking to explain how higher education has evolved into the mass phenomenon that it has become today, this book addresses a significant gap. ... [T]his volume is highly recommended to anyone interested in educational development and its politics." --H-Soz-Kult

"Utopian Universities is unquestionably an authoritative and key text in the study of post-war higher education and suggests some exciting future directions of inquiry for the field. ... Utopian Universities will be an invaluable foundation to build on." --History Workshop Journal

About the Author

Miles Taylor is Professor of Modern History at the University of York, UK.

Jill Pellew is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, Univeristy of London, UK.