author
Arthur O. Norton
1869–1959
Best remembered for bringing the history of medieval universities to modern readers, this American education scholar wrote with a clear interest in how institutions shape learning. His work remains known through a long-circulating sourcebook that introduced students to the roots of European higher education.
1 Audiobook
Readings in the History of Education: Mediaeval Universities
by Arthur O. Norton
About the author
Arthur O. Norton, also known as Arthur Orlo Norton, was an American scholar of education born in 1869 and died in 1959. He is most closely associated with Readings in the History of Education: Mediaeval Universities, first published in the early 20th century, a work that gathered historical materials on the development of medieval universities.
That book reflects the kind of writer and teacher he seems to have been: careful, academic, and focused on helping readers understand how educational systems grew over time. Surviving catalog and author records also connect him with Wellesley College, where he is identified as a professor of education.
Today, Norton is remembered less as a popular literary figure than as a specialist whose work preserved important source material for students of educational history. For listeners interested in classic nonfiction and the story of how universities evolved, his writing offers a direct window into an earlier scholarly tradition.