Promotional Information

The first full-length history of college teaching in the United States from the nineteenth century to the present, this book sheds new light on the ongoing tension between the modern scholarly ideal—scientific, objective, and dispassionate—and the inevitably subjective nature of day-to-day instruction.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Personality over Bureaucracy: The Paradox of College Teaching in America
Chapter One. Between the Two Ends of the Log: Teaching and Learning in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter Two. Scholarship and Its Discontents: Teaching and Learning in the Progressive Era
Chapter Three. The Curse of Gigantism: Mass-Produced Education and Its Critics in Interwar America
Chapter Four. "Teaching Made Personal": Reform and Its Limits in Interwar College Teaching
Chapter Five. Expansion and Repression: Cold War Challenges for College Teaching
Chapter Six. TV or Not TV? Reforming Cold War College Teaching
Chapter Seven. The University under Attack: College Teaching in the 1960s and 1970s
Chapter Eight. Experimentation and Improvement: Reforming Teaching in the 1960s and 1970s
Epilogue. The Decade of the Undergraduate? College Teaching in the 1990s and Beyond
Appendix. Archives of College Teaching
Notes
Index

About the Author

Jonathan Zimmerman is a professor of the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of numerous books, including Too Hot to Handle: A Global History of Sex Education and Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Reviews

In his provocative new book, The Amateur Hour: A History of College Teaching in America, historian Jonathan Zimmerman chronicles more than 200 years of the quality of instruction in higher education. It's a history filled with noble but failed efforts to improve and reform college teaching, marked by student-led protests and solitary campaigns led by individual professors or administrators.
—The Association of College and University Educators

His story is not for pollyannas, but rather for those who relish absurdity, black humor, irony, and, I fear, dashed dreams and heartbreak.
—Inside Higher Ed

The Amateur Hour is the book to read now as we ponder our post-COVID higher education future.
—Joshua Kim

Zimmerman excels in discussing the stories of great lecturers and efforts for reform.
—Daniel A. Clark, Indiana State University, History of Education Quarterly

This is a great book and a worthy read for those interested in college teaching.
—Bookmarked Reads