The College "Y" (PDF)

David P. Setran is Professor of Educational Ministries, Wheaton College, USA.

'Anyone who wants to understand the history of religious commitment in the United States and the contexts that have shaped it will find Setran's penetrating study of the Christian youth movement timely and important.It helps explain current struggles, but more to the point, it delivers a complex narrative in a voice that speaks with uncommon insight and grace.Substantively and methodologically, this book will benefit students, more experienced scholars, and laypeople alike.It establishes Setran as a rising star in the history of American education and religion.' Donald Warren, Indiana University, editor of Civic and Moral Learning in America (Palgrave Macmillan)

'A century ago, the YMCA stood at the center of campus life for many male students, a visible reminder of religious presence in American higher education. Within a few decades, however, the 'Y' was relegated to the margins of academia. In this thoughtful, engaging history, Setran persuasively explains how the social gospel and progressive education helped reshape the religious and social aims of the YMCA, whose leaders unwittingly contributed to the ongoing secularization of modern higher education. A gifted writer with an incomparable command of the primary sources, Setran has established himself as a leading scholar of American educational and religious history.' - William J. Reese, Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History, University of Wisconsin-Madison