Harvard Yard in the Golden Age

New York, N.Y.: Current Books, Inc./A. A. Wyn, Publisher, 1948. Second printing [stated]. Hardcover. Good/Fair. Lester Kierstead Henderson (author photograph on D. 208 pages. DJ is price clipped and has some discoloration, small tears and chips. Includes Acknowledgments. In the early years of the 20th century, Harvard Yard boasted probably as distinguished a group of great teachers and renowned thinkers as have ever been seen at any university before or since. In a series of sharp, incisive portraits which recapture the nostalgic flavor of that golden era at Harvard, Rollo Walter Brown tells the story of these famous educators. This work includes portraits of President Eliot, William James, "Copey", George Santayana, George P. Baker, George Lyman Kittredge, Dean Briggs, Josiah Royce, Hugo Munsterberg, Charles Eliot Norton, George Herbert Palmer, and Professor Nathaniel Shaler--all outstanding figures who come to life in the pages of this book. Rollo Walter Brown was a noted American author, novelist, lecturer, and faculty member. The author knew these men personally and has written a mellow and rewarding series of profiles on them. Charles William Eliot, president 1869-1909, eliminated the favored position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. Though Eliot was the crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education but by Transcendentalist Unitarian convictions influenced by William Ellery Channing and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the 20th century, Harvard's reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the university's scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new graduate schools were begun and the undergraduate college expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as the female counterpart of Harvard College, became one of the most prominent schools for women in the United States. Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.