This paper outlines a neomarxist theoretical framework for interpreting the history of American higher education. It argues that one can best explain the development of American higher institutions as part of a theory of capitalist development, because higher institutions are generally dependent on external patronage and, therefore, on the capitalist class. Drawing on Aglietta's "theory of capitalist regulation," the paper suggests that the competitive, corporate, and state-capitalist phases of development have each resulted in a different structural form of higher education. Each structural form is characterized by its own types of governance, administration, curriculum, and teaching linked to the economic, cultural, and political interests of an ascendant segment of the capitalist class. Contains 55 references. (Author)