American National Identity, Policy Paradigms, and Higher Education

This volume examines the role of higher education in producing and reproducing American cultural identity from 1862 to 2015 and considers whether changes in federal policy regarding higher education result in paradigm shifts that directly impact the purpose of higher education. American institutions of higher education have served as a beacon of American idealism and identity since the foundation of the earliest universities.  As the nation developed, higher education matured and maintained a position of importance in the future of the nation.  While the university has perpetuated American national cultural identity, the nation-state has resourced and legitimated the university, inextricably linking national identity and higher education. In this historical analysis, the relationship between national identity, federal legislation, and higher education is established, and an identity of superiority, defined in economic terms, reinforced by higher education, is revealed.


Allison L. Palmadessa is Assistant Professor of History and Coordinator of Social Studies Licensure, Greensboro College, USA.