ABSTRACT
The history of the order of learning in the United States between the end of the Civil War and the end of the First World War may be seen largely as the history of a fundamental change in the institutional structure of learning; one particular class of institutions became dominant over other classes of learned institutions and particular institutions within that newly dominant class be came especially dominant. The universities as seats of learning gained ascen dancy over other institutional forms for the discovery and diffusion of knowl edge. The ascendancy consisted in superiority in productivity-qualitative and quantitative-and in prestige. The prestige was equally prestige of insti tutions, prestige of works, prestige of individuals. The prestige was accorded both within the order of learning and by the wider public. The ascendancy of the academic order within the order of learning was accompanied by and in a certain measure furthered by the ascendancy of a small number of universi ties at the center of the academic order.
