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    Invent Ed

    How an American Tradition of Innovation Can Transform College Today

    Author Caroline Field Levander
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    Paperback
    $25.00 US
    The MIT Press
    On sale Dec 16, 2025 | 372 Pages | 9780262552516
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    An essential guidebook on innovation in higher education—and how we can ensure student success in college by looking to the history of American invention.

    Invent Ed is a much-needed contribution to the broad ecosystem of innovation, creativity, and higher education in America. Our country’s many generations of inventors, from Benjamin Franklin to modern visionaries like Steve Jobs, have made important new discoveries by putting existing knowledge into unexpected new combinations. This inventive method has led to the discoveries that have made the nation a global power.

    Influential educational leader Caroline Levander provides examples of how to integrate this creative method into the student experience. She offers industry leaders, regulators, and parents valuable insight into how to make the American college experience all that it should be. After tracing the riveting and forgotten history of invention in America, Invent Ed provides a succinct and useful account of how American colleges rose to global prominence and how they operate today. It then offers guidance on how to renew US higher education and thereby ensure the nation’s ongoing vitality.
    Table of Contents
    Introduction: Future-Proofing American College Education
    Part I: Discovering an American Method of Invention
    1. Men of Progress
    2. The Art and Science of Founding a New Republic
    3. The Inventor of an American Method of Invention: “The New Prometheus”
    4. “A New Era in America”
    Part II: Disciplines, Faculties, University
    5.The Genius of the System: Two Cultures
    6. Science as a National Concern
    7. America’s Method of Invention and the American Research University
    8. The New Education in America: 1869-1909
    9. The Emergence of Big Science: 1914-1970
    10. The Market University Emerges: 1970–Onward
    Part III: Necessity—The Mother of Invention
    11. Reinventing Invention in America
    12. Creative as well as Critical Thinking
    Notes
    Caroline Field Levander is Vice President and Carlson Chair in the Humanities at Rice University. She is the author of numerous books on American culture, has held leadership positions on Coursera, 2U/EdX, the Fulbright Association among others, and has led strategic growth and innovation across the industry.
    Caroline Field Levander View titles by Caroline Field Levander
    ENDORSEMENTS

    “Invent Ed     explores America’s innovation legacy—from Franklin to Jobs—and reveals how colleges and universities can reignite creativity. Caroline Levander offers a compelling blueprint for renewing higher education and sustaining the nation’s innovative edge for generations.”
    — Michael M. Crow, President, Arizona State University; coauthor of The Fifth Wave: The Evolution of American Higher Education

    “Levander makes a compelling case for higher education as an active, deeply engaging process that prepares learners for a life of invention, ingenuity, and inspiration. This is an essential book for our turbulent times.”
    — Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO, Lumina Foundation; author of Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines and America Needs Talent

    “Invent Ed links historical narrative to an actionable guide for placing creativity at the center of higher education. This is a spirited call for renewing the university—and the nation itself—through the long tradition of American invention.”
    — Joseph E. Aoun, President, Northeastern University; author of Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

    “Levander issues a compelling call to action to future-proof American higher education and preserve our nation’s distinctive culture of innovation and discovery by cultivating inventiveness in every student, from their first to final semester.”
    — Lynn Pasquerella, President, American Association of Colleges and Universities; author of What We Value: Public Health, Social Justice, and Educating for Democracy

    “Levander is one of the most creative and innovative leaders in higher education, and Invent Ed provides a visionary and achievable roadmap for transforming universities today.”
    — Sanjay Sarma, Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, MIT; former President, CEO, and Dean of the Asia School of Business; author of Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn

    “Invent Ed is a timely and significant contribution to our current national debates about the future of American higher education and the public good.”
    — Neal Lane, Senior Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute for Public Policy; former Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; former Director of the National Science Foundation
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    additional book photo

    About

    An essential guidebook on innovation in higher education—and how we can ensure student success in college by looking to the history of American invention.

    Invent Ed is a much-needed contribution to the broad ecosystem of innovation, creativity, and higher education in America. Our country’s many generations of inventors, from Benjamin Franklin to modern visionaries like Steve Jobs, have made important new discoveries by putting existing knowledge into unexpected new combinations. This inventive method has led to the discoveries that have made the nation a global power.

    Influential educational leader Caroline Levander provides examples of how to integrate this creative method into the student experience. She offers industry leaders, regulators, and parents valuable insight into how to make the American college experience all that it should be. After tracing the riveting and forgotten history of invention in America, Invent Ed provides a succinct and useful account of how American colleges rose to global prominence and how they operate today. It then offers guidance on how to renew US higher education and thereby ensure the nation’s ongoing vitality.

    Table of Contents

    Table of Contents
    Introduction: Future-Proofing American College Education
    Part I: Discovering an American Method of Invention
    1. Men of Progress
    2. The Art and Science of Founding a New Republic
    3. The Inventor of an American Method of Invention: “The New Prometheus”
    4. “A New Era in America”
    Part II: Disciplines, Faculties, University
    5.The Genius of the System: Two Cultures
    6. Science as a National Concern
    7. America’s Method of Invention and the American Research University
    8. The New Education in America: 1869-1909
    9. The Emergence of Big Science: 1914-1970
    10. The Market University Emerges: 1970–Onward
    Part III: Necessity—The Mother of Invention
    11. Reinventing Invention in America
    12. Creative as well as Critical Thinking
    Notes

    Author

    Caroline Field Levander is Vice President and Carlson Chair in the Humanities at Rice University. She is the author of numerous books on American culture, has held leadership positions on Coursera, 2U/EdX, the Fulbright Association among others, and has led strategic growth and innovation across the industry.
    Caroline Field Levander View titles by Caroline Field Levander

    Praise

    ENDORSEMENTS

    “Invent Ed     explores America’s innovation legacy—from Franklin to Jobs—and reveals how colleges and universities can reignite creativity. Caroline Levander offers a compelling blueprint for renewing higher education and sustaining the nation’s innovative edge for generations.”
    — Michael M. Crow, President, Arizona State University; coauthor of The Fifth Wave: The Evolution of American Higher Education

    “Levander makes a compelling case for higher education as an active, deeply engaging process that prepares learners for a life of invention, ingenuity, and inspiration. This is an essential book for our turbulent times.”
    — Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO, Lumina Foundation; author of Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines and America Needs Talent

    “Invent Ed links historical narrative to an actionable guide for placing creativity at the center of higher education. This is a spirited call for renewing the university—and the nation itself—through the long tradition of American invention.”
    — Joseph E. Aoun, President, Northeastern University; author of Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

    “Levander issues a compelling call to action to future-proof American higher education and preserve our nation’s distinctive culture of innovation and discovery by cultivating inventiveness in every student, from their first to final semester.”
    — Lynn Pasquerella, President, American Association of Colleges and Universities; author of What We Value: Public Health, Social Justice, and Educating for Democracy

    “Levander is one of the most creative and innovative leaders in higher education, and Invent Ed provides a visionary and achievable roadmap for transforming universities today.”
    — Sanjay Sarma, Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering, MIT; former President, CEO, and Dean of the Asia School of Business; author of Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn

    “Invent Ed is a timely and significant contribution to our current national debates about the future of American higher education and the public good.”
    — Neal Lane, Senior Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute for Public Policy; former Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; former Director of the National Science Foundation

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