The Rise of Universities is a historical survey on the foundation and progress of high education, whose origins can be traced to medieval times. Exploring the medieval universities, the author divided the book in three parts: "The Earliest Universities," "The Medieval Professor," and "The Medieval Student." The author starts with the question of the origin of modern university finding its roots in Medieval Europe. He then traces the humble beginnings of these early institutions with their itinerant professors and their rowdy students. Tracing the origin of an institution, the author finds the origin of Europe as a concept or as an idea, the precursor of modernism, democracy and human rights. :

Charles Homer Haskins (1870-1937) was a history professor at Harvard University. He was an American historian of the Middle Ages, and advisor to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. He is widely recognized as the first academic medieval historian in the United States.