Francis X. Blouin Jr., U-M Professor of History and Professor in the School of Information talks about The Components of Reputation: Searching for a Bicentennial Narrative for the University of Michigan.
The University of Michigan was transformed in the late nineteenth century. Scholars at a handful of universities that would include the UM systematically reconsidered the relative importance of science and religion to how we understand the world around us. This discussion broadened the idea of and the application of science beyond an interest in natural phenomena. Out of these discussions came the very idea of the modern research university that persists today.