Synopses & Reviews
One of the most influential institutions of higher learning in the world, the University of Chicago has a powerful and distinct identity, and its name is synonymous with intellectual rigor. With nearly 170,000 alumni living and working in more than 150 countries, its impact is far-reaching and long-lasting.
With The University of Chicago: A History, John W. Boyer, Dean of the College since 1992, presents a deeply researched and comprehensive history of the university. Boyer has mined the archives, exploring the schoolandrsquo;s complex and sometimes controversial past to set myth and hearsay apart from fact. The result is a fascinating narrative of a legendary academic community, one that brings to light the nature of its academic culture and curricula, the experience of its students, its engagement with Chicagoandrsquo;s civic community, and the conditions that have enabled the university to survive and sustain itself through decades of change.
Boyerandrsquo;s extensive research shows that the University of Chicagoandrsquo;s identity is profoundly interwoven with its history, and that history is unique in the annals of American higher education. After a little-known false start in the mid-nineteenth century, it achieved remarkable early successes, yet in the 1950s it faced a collapse of undergraduate enrollment, which proved fiscally debilitating for decades. Throughout, the university retained its fierce commitment to a distinctive, intense academic culture marked by intellectual merit and free debate, allowing it to rise to international acclaim. Today it maintains a strong obligation to serve the larger community through its connections to alumni, to the city of Chicago, and increasingly to its global community.
Published to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the university, this must-have reference will appeal to alumni and anyone interested in the history of higher education of the United States.
Review
andldquo;The question before us is how to become one in spirit, not necessarily in opinion.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;If the first faculty had met in a tent, this still would have been a great university.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Stand, Columbia Alma Mater
Through the storms of Time abide
Stand, Columbia Alma Mater
Through the storms of Time abide.
Stand, Columbia by Gilbert Oakley Ward, Columbia College 1902 (1904)
Marking the 250th anniversary of one of America's oldest and most formidable educational institutions, this comprehensive history of Columbia University extends from the earliest discussions in 1704 about New York City being a fit Place for a colledge to the recent inauguration of president Lee Bollinger, the nineteenth, on Morningside Heights. One of the original Colonial Nine schools, Columbia's distinctive history has been intertwined with the history of New York City. Located first in lower Manhattan, then in midtown, and now in Morningside Heights, Columbia's national and international stature have been inextricably identified with its urban setting.
Columbia was the first of America's multiversities, moving beyond its original character as a college dedicated to undergraduate instruction to offer a comprehensive program in professional and graduate studies. Medicine, law, architecture, and journalism have all looked to the graduates and faculty of Columbia's schools to provide for their ongoing leadership and vitality. In 2003, a sampling of Columbia alumni include one member of the United States Supreme Court, three United States senators, three congressmen, three governors (New York, New Jersey, and California), a chief justice of the New York Court of Appeals, and a president of the New York City Board of Education. But it is perhaps as a contributor of ideas and voices to the broad discourse of American intellectual life that Columbia has most distinguished itself. From The Federalist Papers, written by Columbians John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, to Charles Beard's An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution and Jack Kerouac's On the Road to Edward Said's Orientalism, Columbia and its graduates have greatly influenced American intellectual and public life. Stand, Columbia also examines the experiences of immigrants, women, Jews, African Americans, and other groups as it takes critical measure of the University's efforts to become more inclusive and more reflective of the diverse city that it calls home.
Synopsis
The founding articles of the University of Chicago contained what was for the era a shocking declaration: andldquo;To provide, impart, and furnish opportunities for all departments of higher education to persons of both sexes on equal terms.andrdquo; In a time when many still scoffed at educating women, the university was firmly co-ed from the very start. One of its first hires was Marion Talbot. Ready for the adventure of a lifetime, she set her sights on Chicago at a time when the city was still considered all but the Wild West. Talbot eventually became the University of Chicagoandrsquo;s first Dean of Women, influencing a generation of female students.
Originally published in 1936, More than Lore is a unique firsthand account of the early days of the university, capturing the excitement and travails of life on an academic frontier. Talbot shares gossip from the faculty lounge, relays student antics in the dorms, and tells stories from the living rooms of Hyde Park. Itandrsquo;s also a fascinating look at life as an early twentieth-century college woman, with scandals over improper party invitations and underground sororities, petitions calling for more female professors, and campaigns to have students be known as andldquo;university womenandrdquo; instead of andldquo;college girls.andrdquo; With Talbot as our guide, we reenter a lost world where simply to be a woman was to be a pioneer and where the foundations of the modern undergrad experience were being established.
About the Author
John W. Boyer is the Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor in History at the University of Chicago. In 2012, he was appointed to a fifth term as Dean of the College. and#160;A specialist in the history of the Habsburg Empire, he has written three books on Austrian history, including, most recently, Karl Lueger (1844andndash;1910): Christlichsoziale Politik als Beruf.