The Centre County Historical Society will host “American Higher Education since World War II: A History by Dr. Roger Geiger” at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 28, at the Centre Furnace Mansion.
Geiger will speak to the transformation of American higher education and American society from 1945-65 in an illustrated talk.
“American higher education is nearly four centuries old. But in the decades after World War II, as government and social support surged and enrollments exploded, the role of colleges and universities in American society changed dramatically,” writes Princeton University Press. “Roger Geiger provides the most complete and in-depth history of this remarkable transformation, taking readers from the GI Bill and the postwar expansion of higher education to the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s, desegregation and coeducation and the challenges confronting American colleges today.”
Geiger, distinguished professor of higher education emeritus at Penn State, is widely recognized as the preeminent historian of American higher education.
His many books include “Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities since World War II,” “Knowledge and Money: Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace,” “The History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture from the Founding to World War II,” and “American Higher Education since World War II: A History.”
This program is a part of the distinguished author series underwritten by the Anne Hamilton Henszey Pyle and Kenneth B. Pyle Educational Fund for Regional Heritage Preservation (Henszey Pyle Fund.)
The inspirations for the Henszey-Pyle Fund include the interest that Anne and Kenneth have in the history of the community in which they grew up and their belief in the value of the study of history. Anne is the great-great-granddaughter of Moses and Mary Irvin Thompson and great-granddaughter of John Hamilton, all of whose contributions to regional history are honored at the Centre Furnace Mansion and within the Centre County Historical Society. Kenneth, who acquired a love of the study of history growing up in State College, is the Henry M. Jackson Professor of History and International Studies Emeritus at the University of Washington where he has taught history for more than 50 years.
The program is free and open to the public. Donations are accepted. Seating is limited.
The Centre Furnace Mansion is located at 1001 E. College Ave.
