The California Idea and American Higher Education

This is the first comprehensive history of California's pioneering effort to create an expansive and high-quality system of public higher education. Throughout this century, states established public colleges and universities at a dizzying pace, funding enrollment expansion to fit their perceived economic and social needs, and launching a truly dramatic experiment in social engineering. The result was a transformation of the scope and purpose of American higher education, and leading the way was California, with its internationally renowned network of public colleges and universities.