Full Citation
Title: A “Good Mixer”: University Placement in Corporate America, 1890–1940
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2017
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: This article explores the role of university placement offices in shaping a twen- tieth-century corporate elite. While studies of the “corporatization” of the univer- sity focus on developments after the 1970s, the rise of the modern university and corporate economy were inextricably linked by the early twentieth century. Scholars of this period have described the circulation of scientific knowledge and the influx of college graduates into industry, but the specific ties that facili- tated their employment remain underexplored. By examining the correspondence between placement officers and employers in Boston, I demonstrate how univer- sities actively cultivated a new corporate class that not only had the right tech- nical knowledge and social skills but the gender, racial, and class-based characteristics employers preferred. In so doing, universities helped incorporate these characteristics into the meaning of academic merit itself. The marriage of universities and corporate management legitimated a credential-based form of inequality that continues to structure the American political economy.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Groeger, Cristina, V
Periodical (Full): History of Education Quarterly
Issue: 1
Volume: 58
Pages: 33-64
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Other
Countries: United States