not only gave an impetus to the establishment of
technical schools, but by revolutionizing the production and
distribution of wealth pushed into the curriculum the science that
deals with wealth, political economy. The growth of cities that
followed in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, the conflicts
between the interests of classes,--viz., landowners, capitalists, and
laborers,--the rapid decay of feudalism and the spread of political
democracy following the French Revolution, the expansion of commerce
to all corners of the globe and the resulting development of
colonialism, all these human interests gave a new meaning to the study
of history and politics which caused them to secure a place of great
prominence in the curriculum during the last quarter of the nineteenth
century.

It is perfectly obvious that as the time at the student's disposal
remained the same, if he were to pursue even a part of the new subject
matter that was gradually admitted into the curriculum, the course of
study could no longer remain wholly prescribed and he would have to be
granted some freedom of choice. The growth in number of students also
produced changes in administration favorable to the introduction of
the elective system. In the early history of the American college one
instructor taught a single class in all subjects, and it was not until
1776 that the transfer was made at Harvard from the teaching of
classes by one instructor to the teaching of each subject by one
instructor. With increase in numbers the students were unable to
receive in each year instruction by every member of the teaching
staff. In spite of the quite obvious advantages of the elective
system, it was obstinately resisted by the defenders of the classics
and also of orthodox religion and at first made but slow progress.
Thomas Jefferson gave it the first great impetus when he made it an
essential element in the organization of the University of Virginia in
1825. Francis Wayland, president of Brown University and one of the
few college presidents of his day who were educators in the modern
sense, made a splendid exposition and defense of it in 1850 in his
"Report to the Corporation of Brown University on Changes in the
System of Collegiate Education." But the elective system waited upon
the elevation of Charles W. Eliot to the presidency of Harvard in 1869
for its general realization; in 1872 the senior year at Harvard became
wholly elective; in 1879, the ju