Focusing on the student experience from the last quarter of the nineteenth century through the troubled 1960s, this collection of fourteen essays examines university life as a part of social and intellectual history. It brings to light the work of a new generation of researchers who have moved away from the narrower concern with institutional growth that has typified most historical writing in this field. Contributors include Paul Axelrod, Michael Behiels, Judith Fingard, Chad Gaffield, Yves Gingras, Patricia Jasen, Nancy Kiefer, Susan Laskin, Malcolm MacLeod, Lynne Marks, A.B. McKillop, Barry M. Moody, Diana Pederson, Ruth Roach Pierson, James Pitsula, John G. Reid, and Keith Walden.

Paul Axelrod is professor and former dean of the Faculty of Education at York University.

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John G. Reid is a member of the Department of History at Saint Mary’s University and Senior Research Fellow of the Gorsebrook Research Institute. He has published books and articles on northeastern North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

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"The essays in this collection examine important broad issues, access to universities, student culture, and relations with society. These are important themes and at last they are examined for Canadian society." Barry Ferguson, St. John's College, University of Manitoba. "A very solid and important book." J.M. Hayden, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan.