Clark Kerr: The Unapologetic Pragmatist

This article examines the key events leading to the creation of the California higher education system and Clark Kerr's influential concept the "multiversity." The wide, uncritical reception of this term requires explanation, which the essay explores both in terms of Kerr's 1963 book, The Uses of the University, and in terms of its impact even on historical scholarship about American higher education. The essay concludes by finding the multiversity a highly selective (not an inclusive) standard and a latter-day extension of a pragmatic ideology with a long history and many unacknowledged problems.