Taking a social and cultural history approach, Gidney argues that for much of the twentieth century a liberal Protestant establishment imparted its own particular vision of moral and intellectual purpose to denominational and non-denominational campuses alike. Examining administrators' pronouncements, the moral regulation of campus life, and student religious clubs, she demonstrates that Protestant ideals and values were successfully challenged only in the post-World War II period when a number of factors, including a loosening of social mores, a more religiously diverse student body, and the ascent of the multiversity finally eroded Protestant hegemony. Only in the late 1960s, however, can one begin to speak of a university whose public voice was predominantly secular and where the voice of liberal Protestantism had been reduced to one among many.

Catherine Gidney is a professor of history at St. Thomas University. She writes about youth culture and students in revolt over everything from vending machines to curfews to war. She is the author of Tending the Student Body: Health, Youth and the Rise of the Modern University, 1900-1960 and A Long Eclipse: The Liberal Protestant Establishment and the English-Canadian University Campus, 1920-1970.

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