King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in England. Could there be a similar dissolution of the universities in the U.S.?
Writing on Law & Liberty, Helen Dale explores the historical similarities.
Yes, Harvard has a prodigious endowment and probably can’t be fixed. But, Dale writes, “Well, I live in a country that once had institutions many times richer (in relative terms) than Harvard, Penn, or MIT. And in four short years — 1536 to 1540 — all of them had passed into history. Attempts to revive them at the highest level less than 20 years later failed. I speak, of course, of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. As with the monasteries, if Harvard annoys the people of your country enough — especially your wealthy elites — then its 50-billion-dollar endowment will not save it.”
It’s a fascinating line of thought. Read the whole thing.