An overview is provided of the history and mission of Lutheran higher education in North America. The contributions of Lutheran colleges and universities to the church, to society and to higher education are discussed in the following chapters: (1) "Reformation Roots"; (2) "Foothold in America"; (3) "Early Ventures in Lutheran Higher Education"; (4) "The Road to Gettysburg"; (5) "The Ohio Story"; (6) "Particularism in Pennsylvania"; (7) "Lutheran Higher Education in the South"; (8) "The Second German Migration"; (9) "The Missouri System"; (10) "Illinois: Threshold to the Great Plains"; (11) "The Swedish Dimension"; (12) "Early Norwegian Colleges"; (13) "Later Norwegian Colleges"; (14) "Colleges of the Danes and the Finns"; (15) "Emerging Patterns in Lutheran Higher Education, 1865-1914"; (16) "The Maturing of Lutheran Higher Education, 1914-1940"; (17) "Higher Education's New Age, 1941-1960"; (18) "The Sixties: Decade of Testing"; and (19) "The Quest for New Directions, 1970-1980." Appended are a list of the Lutheran Colleges and Universities in North America, giving location and founding date, notes on each chapter, a selected bibliography of Lutheran college histories, and an index. (KM)