This chapter is intended to provide an overview of suicide and higher education, particularly American, that appeals both to the professional and lay person. it offers a foundation as one embarks on the subsequent chapters that comprise this special issue. In a sense, this chapter is like a funnel. It begins with an overview of suicide in general and offers a primer on the major theories of suicide - sociological, pscyhological, and existential. as the funnel narrows, suicide in European education prior to and at the advent of the twentieth century is examined. Then, the literature of suicide in American colleges and universities is reviewed in depth, especially after 1950, with studies of incidence, sex differences, personality, academic aptitude and performance, and management and administration as major divisions. The funnel is voided with a review of both cross-cultural studies and other related literature that bear on the subject of suicide in American higher education.