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Founded in 1869, the University of Nebraska was given the awesome responsibility of educating a new state barely connected by roads and rail lines. Established as a comprehensive university, uniting the arts and sciences, commerce and agriculture, and open to all regardless of "age, sex, color, or nationality", it has as its motto Literis dedicata et omnibus artibus - dedicated to letters and all the arts. The University's history is hardly one of placid growth and unimpeded progress. Its regents, administration, faculty, and students have periodically fought one another, sometimes over matters as crucial as the University's purpose, shape, and destination. More often, battles waged over personalities. It is to these personalities that Knoll directs most of his attention. The author focuses on the men and women who made a difference, for good or ill. He locates the University's place in the changing intellectual and academic context of the United States and charts its passage through hard times and prosperity. He notes the contributions of the University to Nebraska, from the early experiments in sugar beet cultivation to the national fame of its football team. Most important, its education of generations of Nebraskans has lifted state goals and achievement, and its outreach has made the University an international community.
About the author
Robert E. Knoll is D. B. and Paula Varner Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the author of numerous books and editor of the letters of Weldon Kees. His articles have appeared in journals such as American Speech, College English, Hudson Review, and Prairie Schooner.
Summary
Founded in 1869, the University of Nebraska was given the responsibility of educating a state barely connected by roads and rail lines. Uniting the arts and sciences, commerce and agriculture, and open to all regardless of "age, sex, color, or nationality," it has as its motto - dedicated to letters and all the arts. This book offers its history.
