"[This] book shows how, in the post-World War II period, elite research universities moved away from their founding ideals and instead portrayed themselves as instruments for spurring economic development and solving social problems"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction : the instrumental university and American modernity -- The progressive roots of the instrumental university : public administration, city planning, and industrial relations -- Clark Kerr : leading proponent of the instrumental university -- The urban university as community service institution : Pennsylvania in the era of Gaylord P. Harnwell -- Instruments of technical cooperation? : American universities' institution building abroad -- A use of the University of Michigan : Samuel P. Hayes, Jr. and economic development -- Founding the University of California at Irvine : high modern social science and technocratic public policy -- Epilogue : critics of the instrumental university.