In the past several centuries, 566 public four-years higher education institutions were founded in the United States. Meanwhile, the expansion of higher education and economic development has been apparent across the U.S. higher education history. This study provided a detailed comparative look at Braudel's (1972) long term theory that explores the relationship between the cycle of public colleges' and universities' establishments and socioeconomic environments. The result shows that the rise and fall trends of public higher education development are closely associated with the economic environment in the U.S. It is expected that this research could help higher education policymakers and administrators better understand the functions of the economic environment on higher education development and encourage them to make feasible decisions of higher education development to adapt to the economic environment.