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The William G. Bowen Series
Wisdom's Workshop: The Rise of the Modern University
An essential history of the modern research university
When universities began in the Middle Ages, Pope Gregory IX described them as "wisdom's special workshop." He could not have foreseen how far these institutions would travel and develop. Tracing the eight-hundred-year evolution of the elite research university from its roots in medieval Europe to its remarkable incarnation today, Wisdom's Workshop places this durable institution in sweeping historical perspective. In particular, James Axtell focuses on the ways that the best American universities took on Continental influences, developing into the finest expressions of the modern university and enviable models for kindred institutions worldwide. Despite hand-wringing reports to the contrary, the venerable university continues to renew itself, becoming ever more indispensable to society in the United States and beyond.
Born in Europe, the university did not mature in America until the late nineteenth century. Once its heirs proliferated from coast to coast, their national role expanded greatly during World War II and the Cold War. Axtell links the legacies of European universities and Tudor-Stuart Oxbridge to nine colonial and hundreds of pre–Civil War colleges, and delves into how U.S. universities were shaped by Americans who studied in German universities and adapted their discoveries to domestic conditions and goals. The graduate school, the PhD, and the research imperative became and remain the hallmarks of the American university system and higher education institutions around the globe.
A rich exploration of the historical lineage of today's research universities, Wisdom's Workshop explains the reasons for their ascendancy in America and their continued international preeminence.
When universities began in the Middle Ages, Pope Gregory IX described them as "wisdom's special workshop." He could not have foreseen how far these institutions would travel and develop. Tracing the eight-hundred-year evolution of the elite research university from its roots in medieval Europe to its remarkable incarnation today, Wisdom's Workshop places this durable institution in sweeping historical perspective. In particular, James Axtell focuses on the ways that the best American universities took on Continental influences, developing into the finest expressions of the modern university and enviable models for kindred institutions worldwide. Despite hand-wringing reports to the contrary, the venerable university continues to renew itself, becoming ever more indispensable to society in the United States and beyond.
Born in Europe, the university did not mature in America until the late nineteenth century. Once its heirs proliferated from coast to coast, their national role expanded greatly during World War II and the Cold War. Axtell links the legacies of European universities and Tudor-Stuart Oxbridge to nine colonial and hundreds of pre–Civil War colleges, and delves into how U.S. universities were shaped by Americans who studied in German universities and adapted their discoveries to domestic conditions and goals. The graduate school, the PhD, and the research imperative became and remain the hallmarks of the American university system and higher education institutions around the globe.
A rich exploration of the historical lineage of today's research universities, Wisdom's Workshop explains the reasons for their ascendancy in America and their continued international preeminence.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published February 22, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 10, 2025
Would recommend to anyone who's wondered why universities are the way that they are. Doesn't give all the answers (it focuses on US universities, glossing over how German universities became so influential and why Oxbridge doesn't rank as high as US universities), but it's interesting and well-writren. Especially enjoyed the first few chapters and the last. Oh, he leaves out student movements of the 60s, though, which is disappointing.
October 22, 2022
Let me preface this by saying: I am not the target audience. I found this book while wandering aimlessly a library book sale in... May of this year. I've been trying to expand my non-science fiction readings a bit, and this book physically felt pretty nice. Seriously, these university presses put out some really nice books. Now, not only am I not a big nonfiction reader or historian (although I'm working on it), I am also not a fan of the modern American university system and its place in society. I am currently attending at a two-year technical school, and that might be as far as I go. So what did I think about this book dedicated to academia and universities?
I liked it, believe it or not.
The book has seven chapters, I think. The first one was about the modern university's European medieval influences. It was interesting, but it was a bit... murky. There wasn't as much historical documentation of those times, and I don't think he allowed himself too much space for these sections. Still, there were a lot of unique slice-of-life things about libraries or how some proto-universities ran without physical presences. The second chapter was about Oxbridge (the politically correct name for Oxford and Cambridge) and it was a little more concrete. Then we sail away to the New World and stay in America for the remainder of the book, minus a twenty-five page jaunt into the highly lauded universities of German, because apparently they had really nice universities before they pissed off the rest of the world and all that good stuff.
I had a little bit of trouble getting into the European sections since I don't know a lot about interesting British history, so the overall context was lost on me. I did really like the picture of these universities trying to impress Queen Elizabeth, but other than that... it was interesting, I just don't know how to apply it to my own writing (one of the major goals when I read nonfiction). It has given me a background that I can use for writing and just prior knowledge whenever I deal with anything about universities, but it's not instantly inspirational like other history books have been too me.
Perhaps that's because of how academically written this is. I don't have much to compare it to, but it's more formal and less jovial than, say, Nathaniel Philbrick. Every page has a block of footnotes at the end. Every page but two or three... and most pages had more than one. This is an intricately researched compendium of post-secondary education and the ancient and modern world, and I don't think one should read this for the Hell of their own enjoyment.
The second chunk of the book focuses on universities in America, from to Yale to grammar schools to John Hopkins. I know more about antebellum America than medieval Europe, so I naturally enjoyed these sections more. I learned more. This is where the book really did click for me. That being said, I don't feel like this was the most comprehensive history. I don't think I could give a speech about the history of international universities. For example, even though German universities were so highly acclaimed... why? Over twenty-five pages on them and I couldn't answer some of the simple facts. I could say that they went to Hell after World War I... I suppose it's highly specialized, and that's okay (it still did a good job at what it did), it just might not be for everyone.
Do I suddenly worship the university system? No. Do I have better idea of what a university is and its roots in religion and government and scholars? For sure. Was it worth it?... I suppose. I'm not going to seek out every book James Axtell ever wrote, but there is a chance I use this book more than once in the future. I enjoyed the actual reading of this well enough. Sounds like a super solid 7/10 to me. Yet another agreeable read in October of 2022, one of my best reading months this year. Fingers crossed for the Max Brand western creeping up on the horizon...
I liked it, believe it or not.
The book has seven chapters, I think. The first one was about the modern university's European medieval influences. It was interesting, but it was a bit... murky. There wasn't as much historical documentation of those times, and I don't think he allowed himself too much space for these sections. Still, there were a lot of unique slice-of-life things about libraries or how some proto-universities ran without physical presences. The second chapter was about Oxbridge (the politically correct name for Oxford and Cambridge) and it was a little more concrete. Then we sail away to the New World and stay in America for the remainder of the book, minus a twenty-five page jaunt into the highly lauded universities of German, because apparently they had really nice universities before they pissed off the rest of the world and all that good stuff.
I had a little bit of trouble getting into the European sections since I don't know a lot about interesting British history, so the overall context was lost on me. I did really like the picture of these universities trying to impress Queen Elizabeth, but other than that... it was interesting, I just don't know how to apply it to my own writing (one of the major goals when I read nonfiction). It has given me a background that I can use for writing and just prior knowledge whenever I deal with anything about universities, but it's not instantly inspirational like other history books have been too me.
Perhaps that's because of how academically written this is. I don't have much to compare it to, but it's more formal and less jovial than, say, Nathaniel Philbrick. Every page has a block of footnotes at the end. Every page but two or three... and most pages had more than one. This is an intricately researched compendium of post-secondary education and the ancient and modern world, and I don't think one should read this for the Hell of their own enjoyment.
The second chunk of the book focuses on universities in America, from to Yale to grammar schools to John Hopkins. I know more about antebellum America than medieval Europe, so I naturally enjoyed these sections more. I learned more. This is where the book really did click for me. That being said, I don't feel like this was the most comprehensive history. I don't think I could give a speech about the history of international universities. For example, even though German universities were so highly acclaimed... why? Over twenty-five pages on them and I couldn't answer some of the simple facts. I could say that they went to Hell after World War I... I suppose it's highly specialized, and that's okay (it still did a good job at what it did), it just might not be for everyone.
Do I suddenly worship the university system? No. Do I have better idea of what a university is and its roots in religion and government and scholars? For sure. Was it worth it?... I suppose. I'm not going to seek out every book James Axtell ever wrote, but there is a chance I use this book more than once in the future. I enjoyed the actual reading of this well enough. Sounds like a super solid 7/10 to me. Yet another agreeable read in October of 2022, one of my best reading months this year. Fingers crossed for the Max Brand western creeping up on the horizon...
August 4, 2018
3.5
Comprehensive, lucid, and very informative. Still, constrained (perhaps necessarily?) by its teleological approach. Instead of learning how german universities became so dominant in the nineteenth century, or continuing to trace the path of Oxbridge, we only get to hear about what's relevant to how American universities ended up where they are today.
Comprehensive, lucid, and very informative. Still, constrained (perhaps necessarily?) by its teleological approach. Instead of learning how german universities became so dominant in the nineteenth century, or continuing to trace the path of Oxbridge, we only get to hear about what's relevant to how American universities ended up where they are today.
January 28, 2018
A synthesis of earlier works in overly wrought prose.
December 26, 2024
Plenty of interesting nuggets, but not the best weaving together of the story. Less a story of universities and more of specific American results. First chapter is the strongest
September 9, 2025
boring as hell and lowkey did not leave me with any kind of thoughtful reflection
July 26, 2016
Axtell starts his history with Cambridge and Oxford (“Oxbridge”), with English colleges mainly training men for the clergy. Later they became places where the aristocracy sent their sons so that they could find jobs as diplomats or other government posts. From there he goes to the very first college in America, created to educate men for the clergy. Grammar schools proliferated in America right before the Civil War, creating people adequately educated to go to college. He follows the change of colleges as places of rote learning and religious instruction into places that encouraged exploration, experimentation, and research rather than memorizing scripture. Colleges expanded across the USA and became universities that were expected to turn out new findings and technology. The land grant universities are given merely a quick nod. The world war and the GI Bill changed the faces of the universities, as adults filled colleges rather than teenagers. The universities turned into tools of the government, turning out weapons along with economists, scientists, and future legislators.
The book is what it says it is; a history of the universities, with heavy emphasis on the USA. It’s very detailed but pretty dry. I would have liked to see what universities, like Cambridge and Oxford, in other countries had turned into as the ones in the US matured. Sure they have not stagnated for three hundred years. What about the German system that attracted so many students from the US in years before the American system got going? Interesting book but very specialized.
The book is what it says it is; a history of the universities, with heavy emphasis on the USA. It’s very detailed but pretty dry. I would have liked to see what universities, like Cambridge and Oxford, in other countries had turned into as the ones in the US matured. Sure they have not stagnated for three hundred years. What about the German system that attracted so many students from the US in years before the American system got going? Interesting book but very specialized.
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May 6, 2016378 A972 2016
May 27, 2016
Fascinating look at the evolution of higher education.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews