Abstract
On Aug 18, 1975, just over 50 years ago, Troen arrived with his family on Aliya. They left the Midwest and an American university and were headed for the Negev and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev where he would teach American History. Although he had extensive training in Jewish history, he came as an American historian with special interests in the history of education and urban planning. He was curious then, and have continued to be curious throughout his life, about the institutionalization of ideas--that is, what happens to an idea, how it is altered, developed, and compromised in the course of its implementation.