The Rise of American Boarding Schools and the Development of a National Upper Class

Abstract

Very little historical or sociological research has been done on American private schools. I try to rectify that deficiency by examining the origin and early development of the schools at the top of the private school hierarchy—the twelve most exclusive boarding schools. The rise and initial popularity of these schools in the late nineteenth century can be traced to a desire on the part of old established families in the Northeast to create cultural institutions they could use both to define their own cultural identity and to isolate themselves from nouveaux riches industrialists and lower-class immigrants. In the course of their development, however, the sociological function these institutions served came to differ from the one envisioned by their founders and original patrons. Data on the class origins and destinations of a sample of boarding school graduates strongly suggest that these schools came to be places where the children of new wealth were brought together with those of the old families. The result was the integration of both groups into a single cohesive national upper class. The members of this group were able to retain control over America's financial establishment. With their control over the flow of investment capital, they could also exercise a great deal of power over the economy and polity.