University Reform: The Founding of the American Association of University Professors

by Hans-Joerg Tiede

Overview

How the AAUP fought to give voice to America’s faculty and defend academic freedom.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was founded to advance the professionalization of America’s faculty. University Reform examines the social and intellectual circumstances that led to the organization’s initial development, as well as its work to defend academic freedom. It explores the AAUP’s subsequent response to World War I and the first Red Scare. It also describes the founders’ efforts, especially those of Arthur O. Lovejoy and James McKeen Cattell, in securing a greater role for faculty in the government of colleges and universities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421418278
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hans-Joerg Tiede is a faculty member at Illinois Wesleyan University. He is the chair of the AAUP’s Committee on the History of the Association, a member of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and the editor of the AAUP’s Policy Documents and Reports, eleventh edition.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Michael Bérubé
Acknowledgments
Introduction. The University Question
1. No Hired Man
2. University Reform
3. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
4. The Committee of Nine
5. The Founding of the AAUP
6. First Investigations and the Committee of Fifteen
7. The 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure
8. The Goal of Investigations and the Early Development of Academic Due Process
9. Academic Freedom in the Age of Repression
10. Academic Unrest
11. The Growth and Development of the Association
Conclusion. From University Reform to the 1920s
Appendix. Officers of the AAUP, Members of Committee A, and Members of Investigative Committees, 1915–20
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Michael Bérubé

"This book is a critical account of the early years of the AAUP...about how it came to be that people devised a system for treating controversial professors fairly. They did it by developing arguments, and ultimately practices, that now serve as the bedrock of higher education in the United States. We are all in their debt—and now, too, we are in debt to Joerg Tiede for this book."

Larry G. Gerber

I know of no other work on the organization that is based on such extensive use of archival material.

Jordan E. Kurland

Those interested in how and why the AAUP began will find Tiede’s book definitive, far surpassing previous publications in its scope and depth. It draws upon invaluable untapped archival material and introduces the reader to the relatively unsung contributions of a second generation of AAUP leaders.

From the Publisher

This book provides insight into the tensions inherent in the American university system and inspiration for the role professors might play in successfully addressing them.
—Joan W. Scott, Institute for Advanced Study

I know of no other work on the organization that is based on such extensive use of archival material.
—Larry G. Gerber, Auburn University, author of The Rise and Decline of Faculty Governance: Professionalization and the Modern American University

Those interested in how and why the AAUP began will find Tiede’s book definitive, far surpassing previous publications in its scope and depth. It draws upon invaluable untapped archival material and introduces the reader to the relatively unsung contributions of a second generation of AAUP leaders.
—Jordan E. Kurland, Associate General Secretary, American Association of University Professors

This book is a critical account of the early years of the AAUP...about how it came to be that people devised a system for treating controversial professors fairly. They did it by developing arguments, and ultimately practices, that now serve as the bedrock of higher education in the United States. We are all in their debt—and now, too, we are in debt to Joerg Tiede for this book.
—Michael Bérubé, past president, Modern Language Association

Michael Bérubé

This book is a critical account of the early years of the AAUP...about how it came to be that people devised a system for treating controversial professors fairly. They did it by developing arguments, and ultimately practices, that now serve as the bedrock of higher education in the United States. We are all in their debt—and now, too, we are in debt to Joerg Tiede for this book.

Joan W. Scott

This book provides insight into the tensions inherent in the American university system and inspiration for the role professors might play in successfully addressing them.

Editorial Reviews

. . . meticulously researched and absorbing history . . .
—The Weekly Standard

Tiede has done a superb job of illuminating the Association’s early years. But his investigation does more: it instigates further thought. His book should be of interest to anyone trying to come to grips with the role of the professoriate today and with the future of the AAUP.
—Matthew Finkin, University of Illinois, Academe

A volume worth reading as much for its walk-on characters (“distinguished classicist Basil Gildersleeve”) as for its discussion of the AAUP’s Declaration of Principles. 
—Times Higher Education (UK)

Regardless of one's personal perspective on academic freedom and tenure, this book is a must-read for those in higher education programs and administration.  It will be enlightening to foes of tenure and refreshing to those who advocate it.
—Choice

Tiede presents a useful history with case studies of the AAUP’s early years.
—Academic Quest

Tiede's work will serve as a resource not only for scholars of the history of higher education, but also for researchers and practitioners who seek to gain a long-term historical perspective and context on important topics such as shared governance, academic freedom, tenure, and due process.
—Journal of College and University Law

What we do have now is an excellent story of university reform that includes a thorough exhumation of the compromises and conflicts that were central to the founding and priorities of the AAUP—all of whose principles and liturgy are still invoked a century later.
—Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

University Reform speaks importantly to our current moment
—New Political Science

From the Publisher

. . . meticulously researched and absorbing history . . .

The Weekly Standard

Tiede's work will serve as a resource not only for scholars of the history of higher education, but also for researchers and practitioners who seek to gain a long-term historical perspective and context on important topics such as shared governance, academic freedom, tenure, and due process.

Journal of College and University Law

A volume worth reading as much for its walk-on characters (“distinguished classicist Basil Gildersleeve”) as for its discussion of the AAUP’s Declaration of Principles. 

Times Higher Education (UK)

University Reform speaks importantly to our current moment

New Political Science

Tiede presents a useful history with case studies of the AAUP’s early years.

Academic Quest

What we do have now is an excellent story of university reform that includes a thorough exhumation of the compromises and conflicts that were central to the founding and priorities of the AAUP—all of whose principles and liturgy are still invoked a century later.

Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

Tiede has done a superb job of illuminating the Association’s early years. But his investigation does more: it instigates further thought. His book should be of interest to anyone trying to come to grips with the role of the professoriate today and with the future of the AAUP.

Academe - Matthew Finkin

Regardless of one's personal perspective on academic freedom and tenure, this book is a must-read for those in higher education programs and administration.  It will be enlightening to foes of tenure and refreshing to those who advocate it.

Choice

"What we do have now is an excellent story of university reform that includes a thorough exhumation of the compromises and conflicts that were central to the founding and priorities of the AAUP—all of whose principles and liturgy are still invoked a century later"

The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive - John Thelin