Tufts Provost Sol Gittleman Writes Book on History of Higher Education

With the academic year about to begin, university presidents around the country, including three new ones at Harvard, MIT, and Tufts — will have to lead organizations that are constantly embroiled in controversies and face a barrage of negative press: arguments about the value of Affirmative Action, stories about celebrities scamming the admissions system to get their children into coveted schools, labor strikes, free speech battles, and, of course, the ongoing debate over whether college is even worth it if you have to go into thousands of dollars-worth of debt just to be there.

Yet for all this noise, nearly 1 million foreign students flocked to the U.S. to study in the 2021-2022 school year, according to the Institute for International Education. They want to study at the best institutions in the world.

So is American higher education truly a disaster or the envy of the world? And how did higher education get to this point?

Sol Gittleman, who spent more than 50 years as a legendary professor and provost at Tufts University, wrestles with these questions in his bracing new book, An Accidental Triumph (Vesto Books, September 2023).

With a dynamic mix of history, analysis, and personal reflection. An Accidental Triumph tells the engaging story of how American higher education evolved from a patchwork of seminaries in the early 19th century into the world’s leader in research by the middle of the 20th. Gittleman links this fascinating story to his own 50-year academic career, which coincided with an explosive rise in enrollment spurred by the G.I. Bill, and an unparalleled postwar boom in faculty hiring, prompted by massive new federal support for academic research from organizations such as the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.

Gittleman will speak about his new book at two upcoming events this fall. Both events are free and open to the public.

• Saturday, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m.
  Cary Lecture Series
  1605 Massachusetts Ave., Lexington, MA
• Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m.
  Winchester Public Library
  80 Washington St., Winchester, MA

Writing with authority, frankness, and unfailing wry good humor, Gittleman surveys the triumphs, tragedies, and tensions of the history of American higher education. Despite the relentless criticism, Gittleman finds good reason to remain optimistic about the future of teaching and research at the college and university level in the United States.

Gittleman argues the widely held belief that American colleges are not as academically rigorous as they once were or are a waste of time mostly stems from critics and the press, which are more interested in writing stories about disaster rather than positive accounts of the value of a college education.

And while some argue that American colleges give students and faculty too much freedom in what they are allowed to study and research, Gittleman contends that it is precisely this freedom that has led to so many scholars from American institutions to win Nobel Prizes and keep America at the top of the academic world. Despite all its real shortcomings, Gittleman concludes, the college experience in America has become too ingrained into the fabric of our culture to disappear any time soon.

The book has already garnered attention from several prominent authors, including Larry Tye, author of the New York Times bestselling book, Satchel and Demagogue. “There's no more important story to be told at this moment in America than why higher education matters. And there's no more adept and engaging storyteller than Sol Gittleman,” Tye says.

Richard Freeland, former president of Northeastern University and author of Academia’s Golden Age: Universities in Massachusetts, 1945-1970, agrees. “An Accidental Triumph, Sol Gittleman’s fast-paced, highly personal history of American higher education, reflects his many years of leadership at Tufts University and his ability to weave together the relevant literature, from scholarly work to journalistic commentary. All who know Gittleman will recognize his distinctive voice and strongly held views. And all who care about academia will benefit from his sharp insights and passion as an educator,” he says.

A native of Hoboken, N.J., Gittleman received his Bachelor’s degree from Drew University in 1955 before going on to earn a Master’s from Columbia University and a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Michigan in 1961. He began teaching at Tufts University in 1964, and over the next 50 years taught courses in German, Judaic studies, biblical literature, the history of baseball and more until his retirement in 2015. Gittleman, who also served as Tufts provost from 1981 to 2002, has received many awards, fellowships, and honorary degrees for his teaching and service. He is the author of six books, including An Entrepreneurial University (Tufts University Press, 2004).