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STANFORD: The Story of a University by Edith R. Mirrielees

STANFORD: The Story of a University

By

Pub Date: Jan. 15th, 1959
Publisher: Putnam

Academic in both style and subject-matter, this history of one of America's most colorful private universities, Stanford, at Palo Alto, Calif., unfortunately misses much of the flavor of this unique institution. Heavily endowed by one of this country's most fabulous railroad millionaires, Leland Stanford, and his wife, in memory of their only son, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died at the age of 15, Stanford University first opened its doors in 1891. Beautiful in design and setting, blessed by its faculty and presidents such as David Starr Jordan, from its first years the University has emphasized independence of thought in both faculty and students, and the highest standards of instruction, scholarship and research. It has survived earthquakes, two wars, the depression, and problems of post-war expansion and burgeoning classes, all here duly recorded, but one misses mention of the foibles of Mrs. Leland Stanford, who for years after her husband's death reigned over the University, not always to its delight. Of necessarily limited scope, hampered by a pedestrian style and a surprising lack of dates, this heavily-written book will hold a greater appeal to students and historians of America's academic development than to Stanford undergraduates, but it should prove a useful book of reference for Stanford faculty and alumni.