Featuring a new introduction by the author, the paperback edition of Games Colleges Play chronicles the history of intercollegiate athletics from 1910 to 1990--from the early, glory days of Knute Rockne and the Gipper to the modern era of big budgets, powerful coaches, and pampered players. John Thelin describes how sports programs--although seldom accorded official mention with teaching and research in the university mission statement--have become central to university life. As administrators search for a proper balance between athletics and academics, Thelin observes, this...

100 years ago, college tuition at prestigious Ivy League colleges such as Harvard and Brown was about $130 per year. Even when adjusted for inflation, today's cost of higher education has increased dramatically--to the point where a college education is shifting further out of reach for many Americans. This book explains the essential concepts in the debate regarding the staggering costs of higher education, supplying ten original essays by higher education policy experts, a lively historical narrative that provides context to current issues, and systematic guides to finding additional...

John R. Thelin's A History of American Higher Education has become a standard in higher education studies. Designed to be used alongside this groundbreaking book or on its own, Essential Documents in the History of American Higher Education presents primary sources that chart the social, intellectual, political, and cultural history of American colleges and universities from the seventeenth century to the present. Documents are organized in sections that parallel the chapters in the first book both chronologically and thematically. Thelin introduces sections with brief...