Brown: The History of an Idea

ISBN-13: 9780500252161 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Publication date: 09/08/2015 Pages: 320 Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d) An eloquent illustrated history of one of America's greatest universities Founded in 1636, essentially as a refuge for outcasts from Massachusetts, the colony of Rhode Island was unusually open-minded, leading Massachusetts Puritan Cotton Mather to refer to it as “the latrina [or sewer] of New England.” The sixth of the Ivy League universities to be founded, in 1764, Brown accepted students early on regardless of religious affiliation, and in 1969 adopted a student-proposed “New Curriculum,” allowing students to structure their education with relative freedom. Over the last two and a half centuries, the university and its graduates have played a notable role in numerous defining moments in the American story, from the legacy of slavery (one of the founding Brown brothers was a leading abolitionist, the other an “ardent defender and slave trader”