Lessons from the USA

摘要

The taming of the vast territory that became the United States of America required great 'can do' attitudes, innovation and courage. Along the way, many people became very wealthy through their creative enterprise in agriculture, railways, telecommunications, oil and so on. Some of these such as Leland Stanford, Ezra Cornell and Stephen van Rensselaer endowed new universities as their contribution to the further development of their country through education, particularly in the sciences and technology. This was not simply altruism, but an enlightened response to the realisation that developments in agriculture, transport and communication required more and more technically competent and educated people. The older universities, such as William and Mary, Harvard, Yale and Columbia, had been based on the European, Humboldt model of traditional, classical education and strongly supported the philosophical, political, legal and administrative needs of the new country.