Higher Learning in America in Veblen's Time and our Own

An Annotated Version by Richard Teichgraeber III

Arthur Vidich was a scholar who considered himself a student of Thorstein Veblen - even though he never studied with him and was two generations removed from the Robber Baron era in which Veblen lived.  What they both had in common was a deep interest in the role of the university in modern society and its takeover by business interests during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Veblen's published his book, Higher Learning in America in 1918 just months before accepting a post at the New School for Social Research in New York City. 

Veblen's book is an indictment of American universities and their takeover by Robber Baron business interests that replaced the so called "idle curiosity" of scholars with the business driven purposes of bottom line financial performance that one would expect to find in the marketplace. Veblen berates the emergence of vocational education within the university system as a "sell-out" to businessmen who had taken over the Boards of Trustees of America's most famous universities. While Veblen acknowledges the inevitable development of vocational schooling as a means to attract students who are interested in the practical things of life - namely getting a job - he bemoans the loss of disinterested academic research and the exponential growth of class size leaving little time for the student-teacher relationship.

In the Summer of 1994, Artur Vidich published his critique of Veblen's book and offered a synopsis of events since Higher Learning in America was first published (Higher Learning in America in Veblen's Time and our Own). Vidich believes that Veblen misunderstood the origin and purpose of American universities that had emerged from divinity schools like Harvard in 1636. He contends that puritans were never entirely "other worldly" in their academic pursuit of knowledge since one of their principles of spiritual exaltation was reflected in this worldly success.  Contrary to Veblen's interpretation of religion as "other worldly" American universities expanded into various forms of vocational training (i.e. laws schools, schools of public health, schools of medicine, etc.) in order to better serve their commitment to service to their fellow man through good works. 

Even more interesting than Vidich's excellent critique of Veblen, is his analysis of how federal funding of American universities in the post World War II era has dramatically transformed higher education.  The infusion of federal dollars under the GI Bill expanded higher education to millions of World War II veterans creating a more egalitarian vocational schooling system than had previously existed in America. Federal funds also transformed universities into gigantic consulting firms that recklessly sought grants for whatever funding was available - even if such funding supported the military-industrial complex and the war making machine that emerged in 1950s. Vidich points to the misuse of government funds that inevitably occurred as millions of dollars were funneled to universities that were incompetently managing their fiscal responsibilities. Seeking federal grants was viewed as a means to keep America's universities relevant - regardless of the ethical or social consequences of such grant-taking activities.

Vidich bemoans the business bottom line of modern universities. He states,  "The need to increase tuition income and tuition paying students has led the higher education to promote something to everyone under the concept of life-long learning and the provision of specialized program of every conceivable variety."  Vidich contends fiscal measures that consider the cost of instructional personnel lead to efforts to increase per capital output (i.e. more students per teacher) which in turn leads to mass education which in turn cycles through greater efficiencies in the delivery of each "widget of information." 

Vidich did not live long enough to see the revised edition of Higher Learning in America released by Richard F. Teichgraeber III in 2015. Teichgraeber's annotated version of Veblen's classic study clearly explains how Veblen's analysis was a product of his times.  Yet even Teichgraeber fails to understand the practical underpinnings of America's puritan universities (namely Harvard) and how they gradually embraced vocational education and other practical forms of knowledge that could be used in the service of humanity.  Rather than being a break from the past, for better or worse, the modern university has clearly evolved to achieve many of the "this worldly" goals of our puritans ancestors.