In transforming its admissions criteria as a response to the “Jewish problem”, Harvard exemplified a recurrent pattern in the history of elite college admissions: the particular definition of “merit” at a given moment reflects the ideals of the groups that hold power of cultural definition. In the case of the shift from intellect to character that took place in the 1920s at the Big Three, the redefinition of merit was a part of larger mobilization by old-stock Protestants to preserve their dominance by restricting both immigration and the educational and occupational opportunities available to
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