Long Eclipse

Taking a social and cultural history approach, Gidney argues that for much of the twentieth century a liberal Protestant establishment imparted its own particular vision of moral and intellectual purpose to denominational and non-denominational campuses alike. Examining administrators' pronouncements, the moral regulation of campus life, and student religious clubs, she demonstrates that Protestant ideals and values were successfully challenged only in the post-World War II period when a number of factors, including a loosening of social mores, a more religiously diverse student body, and the ascent of the multiversity finally eroded Protestant hegemony. Only in the late 1960s, however, can one begin to speak of a university whose public voice was predominantly secular and where the voice of liberal Protestantism had been reduced to one among many.