In the Wake of Laurence Veysey: Re-examining the Liberal Arts College

In The Emergence of the American University, Laurence R. Veysey enriched our understanding of the American university at its creation in the second half of the nineteenth century. He demonstrated how this new institution drew on German approaches and valued experimental, empirical methods of knowledge. The university introduced the lecture and seminar. It valued graduate school training above all; the doctoral dissertation required that its students become creators of new knowledge, preferably by experimental methods. Veysey helped us understand the emerging American university by creating a useful ideal type.