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The Religious Origins of Educational Inequality: American Denominational Control of Higher Education in the Early 20th Century / Tessa D Huttenlocher.
- Format:
- Book
- Thesis/Dissertation
- Author/Creator:
- Huttenlocher, Tessa D., author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Sociology.
- Higher education.
- Religion.
- Educational administration.
- Sociology--Penn dissertations.
- Penn dissertations--Sociology.
- Local Subjects:
- Sociology.
- Higher education.
- Religion.
- Educational administration.
- Sociology--Penn dissertations.
- Penn dissertations--Sociology.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (183 pages)
- Contained In:
- Dissertations Abstracts International 85-12A.
- Place of Publication:
- [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania, 2022.
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2024
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- It is widely recognized that religious groups played a key role in founding institutions of higher education before the early 20th century. However, until now, scholars have lacked the detailed data required to articulate how those denominations' early commitments to higher education shaped the system of colleges and universities we know today. This comparative-historical dissertation uses previously unexamined archival data from the 1916 Census of Religious Bodies and the 1923 College Blue Book to investigate how the social inequalities embedded within the American religious field had created a stratified system of private higher education by the early 20th century. It also shows how differences between schools affiliated with different denominations mattered in light of the contemporaneous trend toward disaffiliation and non-sectarianism. The motivating questions for this study are Which religious denominations had successfully invested in higher education by the early 20th century, and which had not? Which religious denominations promoted which kinds of higher education? And finally, which religious denominations and schools formally disaffiliated from each other, and why? I find that the Protestant Establishment-the handful of denominations associated with the English-speaking colonial elite-had early advantages in founding colleges, equipping them with advantageous resources, and then disaffiliating them, effectively redefining their schools as the torchbearers for quality (secular) higher education. This study illuminates the enduring importance of religious denominations' historical involvement in important American institutions-especially the ones that we think of today as being largely secular.
- Notes:
- Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-12, Section: A.
- Advisors: Wilde, Melissa J.; Committee members: Jacobs, Jerry A.; Grazian, David; McDonnell, Mary-Hunter.
- Department: Sociology.
- Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2024.
- Local Notes:
- School code: 0175
- ISBN:
- 9798382830933
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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