Pitt : the story of the University of Pittsburgh, 1787-1987 / Robert C. Alberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alberts, Robert C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

University of Pittsburgh--History.

University of Pittsburgh.

Genre:

History

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (593 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : University of Pittsburgh Press, [1986]

Summary:

This is a history of a major American university from its birth on the western frontier in the eighteenth century through its two-hundredth anniversary. Told primarily through the stories of its energetic and sometimes eccentric chancellors, it's a colorful and highly readable chronicle of the University of Pittsburgh. The story begins in the early spring of 1781, when an ambitious young Philadelphia lawyer named Hugh Henry Brackenridge crossed the Alleghenies to seek his opportunity in Pittsburgh. "My object, "?he wrote, "was to advance the country [Western Pennsylvania] and thereby myself." He founded Pittsburgh Academy, later to be the Western University of Pennsylvania and then the University of Pittsburgh, and lived to see the school grow along with the city. Author Robert C. Alberts, mines the University archives and describes many issues for the first time. Among them is the role played by the Board of Trustees in the conflicts of the administration of Chancellor John Gabbert Bowman, including the firing of a controversial history professor, Ralph Turner; the resignation of the legendary football coach, Jock Sutherland; and a Board investigation into Bowman's handling of faculty and staff. We see Pitt's decade of progress under Edward Litchfield (1956-165), who gambled that the millions of dollars he spent... would be forthcoming form somewhere or someone; but who, as it turned out was mistaken." Pitt became a state-related university in August 1966, but financial stability was achieved gradually during the administration of Chancellor Wesley W. Posvar. The ensuing crisis of the 1960s and early 1970, caused by the Vietnam War, and the student protests that accompanied it, are described in rich detail. The history then follows Pitt's emergence as a force in international higher education; the institution's role in fostering a cooperative relationship with business; and its entry into the postindustrial age of high technology. The story of Pitt reflects all the struggles and the hopes of the region. As Alberts writes in his preface, "There was drama; there was tragedy; there was indeed controversy and politics. There were, unexpectedly, rich veins of humor, occasionally of comedy."

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Foreword

John Funari

Preface

Robert C. Alberts

Book I. 1787-1921

1. The Articulate Audible Voice of the Past

2. "Great Diversity of Talent and Attention

3. "The Greatest Work I Have Ever Undertaken

4. ... And on into a Bright New Century

Book II. 1921- 1946

5. "A New Kind of Schoolmaster

6. The Campaign

7. The Tall Building, and Some Others

8. The 1930s: Fulfillment and Good Fortune

9. The 1930s: Dissension in the House

10. Code Bowman and "The Most Discussed Controversy

11. The Ordeal of a Chancellor

12. The University at War

Book III. 1947-1955

13. The Peacemaker

14. The Letters of Gift

15. The Pitt Vaccine

16. "The Athletic Situation," or, Days of Rage and Anguish

17. Farewell, a Long Farewell

Book IV. 1956-1965

18. The Twelfth Chancellor

19. Toward Higher Ground

20. "New Dimensions of Learning in a Free Society

21. An Episode in the Life of a Chancellor

22. The Golden Glow

23. The Colodny Case

24. Trouble

25. Panther Hollow

26. The Crisis

Book V. 1966-1985

27. Toward Recovery

28. "Our House Is in Order

29. The Frick Fine Arts Building

30. "The Creative Eye

31. Confrontation I

32. Confrontation II

33. 1976: The Turning Point

34. The Precisely Measurable Triumph

35. The Future of Academic Medicine

36. The Campus of the Future

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Appendices

Notes and Sources

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780822979784

0822979780

OCLC:

1303436663