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Based largely on archival sources in the United States and Rome, this book documents the evolution of Fordham from a small diocesan college into a major American Jesuit and Catholic university. It places the development of Fordham within the context of the massive expansion of Catholic higher education that took
place in the United States in the twentieth century. This was reflected at Fordham in its transformation from a local commuter college to a predominantly residential institution that now attracts students from 48 states and 65 foreign countries to its three undergraduate schools and seven graduate and professional schools with an enrollment of more than 15,000 students.
This is honest history that gives due credit to Fordham for its many academic achievements, but it also recognizes that Fordham shared the shortcomings of many Catholic colleges in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There was an ongoing struggle between Jesuit faculty who wished to adhere closely to the traditional Jesuit ratio studiorum and those who recognized the need for Fordham to modernize its curriculum to meet the demands of the regional accrediting agencies.
In recent decades, like virtually all American Catholic universities and colleges, the ownership of Fordham has been transferred from the Society of Jesus to a predominantly lay board of trustees. At the same time, the sharp decline in the number of Jesuit administrators and faculty has intensified the challenge of offering
a first-rate education while maintaining Fordham’s Catholic and Jesuit identity.
June 2016 is the 175th anniversary of the founding of Fordham University, and this comprehensive history of a beloved and renowned New York City institution of higher learning will help contribute to celebrating this momentous occasion.
This is a terrific book -- deeply researched, thorough in coverage, fair in its judgments, written in a clear and engaging style. It does full justice to Fordham's storied past and present stature.---—Philip Gleason, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Notre Dame
“Tom Shelley’s distinguished record as an historian of Catholic America, with a particular mastery of the Catholic experience in New York, makes him an ideal choice to produce the first full-scale history of one of the most important Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States. The vivid writing briskly carries the story along; the unobtrusive, shrewd evaluations provide an appropriate weight to the narrative. From his apt chapter titles, through his careful layering of context, to his uniformly spot-on characterizations, this is first-rate history. He has really captured Fordham’s unique history.”---—Emmett Curran, Professor Emeritus of History, Georgetown University
Like any university, Fordham is a big, complicated thing, and Shelley is no
doubt painfully aware of the many subjects and stories he has had to leave out of this history, lest the work become encyclopedic. What he has done, however, is provide an expertly researched and smoothly written account that will attract grateful readers, not just from among Fordham alumni and alumnae, but also from anyone with an interest in works of the Jesuit order and the importance of higher education in the United States.
Since 1841 Fordham has played a pivotal role in the educational and cultural life of the Bronx and wider New York City. Shelley provides a detailed institutional history that charts both triumphs and setbacks, the shifting pedagogical trends, and Fordham’s identity in the new millennium.
Trying to capture the nuts and bolts of any institution the size of Fordham University can test the heart of any historian. Fortunately the university employed Father Shelley to do the job. His volume serves not only as a dispassionate exposition of the fits and starts of this now-venerable force in higher learning, but he tells the story with vigor and aplomb.