The Classical Curriculum as a Casualty of War: The Morrill Act of 1862

FAIN: FT-58533-11

Francis J. Donoghue
Ohio State University (Columbus, OH 43210-1349)

An NEH Summer Stipend would fund my research on chapter 1 of my book-length study of transformative events in the history of American higher education, “The Classical Curriculum as a Casualty of War: The Morrill Act of 1862.” The Morrill Act is usually seen as the federal legislative response to a growing interest in a more practical college curriculum during the earlier part of the nineteenth century. And indeed, some colleges founded during this period, such as R.P.I. (1824), responded to the demand for courses in agriculture and engineering which would supplement the traditional plan of study, grounded in the humanities and emphasizing Classical languages and philosophy. But this growing demand does not explain the enormous federal expense of money and energy that propelled the Land Grant university movement, which offered this alternative curriculum. I argue that the Land Grant movement gained special urgency because of the tide of battle in the early months of the Civil War.