From Piety Toward Pluralism: A History of Bowdoin College — Wells

By Allen Wells
Roger Howell Jr. Professor of History, Emeritus

From Piety Toward Pluralism tracks instances of tolerance and intolerance over the entire arc of Bowdoin College’s 230-year history. In addition to exploring how the College has engaged with ethnic, racial and religious minorities, this history teases out Bowdoin’s transformation from a religiously affiliated institution to a modern liberal arts college. Featuring contributions from Bowdoin faculty and students who mined the library’s rich archival collections, From Piety Toward Pluralism shines a light on lesser-known individuals who overcame hardship and discrimination and went on to make their mark in their respective fields.

“In this strikingly original study, Allen Wells uses the history of a small college in Maine to reveal the profound complexity of American higher education—its pitfalls and promises, accomplishments and failures. Weaving together an array of previously unexamined archives, Wells provides a timely reminder of higher education’s expansive capacity to advance—and yet also undermine—the common good.”

—Charles Dorn, author of For the Common Good: A New History of Higher Education in America

ALLEN WELLS is the Roger Howell Jr. Professor of History, emeritus, at Bowdoin College. The author of seven previous books, he has been awarded fellowships from the
Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies.

-From the back cover.