"In this first volume of a planned trilogy that will recast the history of the university in a fresh and surprising light, Adam R. Nelson aims to show how knowledge itself was commodified, starting in the late eighteenth century. Nelson follows the market transformation in the age of revolutions to show how American colleges were drawn into transatlantic commercial relations. Fusing the history of higher education with the history of capitalism, Nelson opens up an array of questions: How do we distinguish between knowledge and education as goods? Are they public or private? What determines their prices? In the most fundamental sense, what is the optimal system of higher education in a capitalist democracy? The answers have jarring relevance today"--