Contemporary descriptions of education and educational institutions commonly employ images of competition and business, referring to products, resources, consumers, and further elements of the corporate and business-world models. What are the consequences of structuring the university as a business, as opposed to a community, a guild, or a social resource? These are among the prior models for the university, but have all been in decline since the growth of the business metaphor in education. This dissertation uses cognitive linguistics and metaphor analysis to examine the ways in which we have understood the university in America. It focuses on the contemporary view of education as a business, but examines the history of ideas and models that have led up to this. The notion of education as a product offered in a competitive market relies upon the tenet that market forces will provide a natural balance in society (the 'invisible hand'). But a closer examination of the models employed to validate the free market and the ideal of competition some problematic aspects. For example, among the effects of understanding education as a business is that schools treating education as a service and not as a social good, as a want rather than a need, compete for customer-students, making education less available to poorer, underprivileged individuals. This development invites criticism when the American economy is increasingly becoming one of skilled labor. But more than that, this shift undercuts one of the cornerstones of democracy: an educated citizenry. The increasingly polarized distribution of resources and which is a result of the corporate model in academia conflicts directly the deeply held belief that education as a public good should be everyone. If we as a society and as a country are to hold true to education for all, an education which provides the possibility for advancement that is understood to be the right of every citizen, reconsider the assumptions of the market system, and the effects had upon both our educational system and our society as a whole. (Dissertation Abstracts)