Higher education during the antebellum period wasn’t, as many scholars have claimed, devoid of government intervention. Moreover, land and cash subsidies for schools, the establishment of state institutions, government loans, monopoly protections, and other government policies put academia on a different path than it would have taken in the absence of intervention.

Daniel L. Bennett is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at Florida State University.
Economic History and DevelopmentEconomyEducationFederal Education PolicyFree Market EconomicsGovernment and PoliticsHigher EducationPolitical HistoryRegulation