: Rex Bowman, Carlos Santos
: Rot, Riot, and Rebellion Mr. Jefferson's Struggle to Save the University That Changed America
: University of Virginia Press
: 9780813934716
: 1
: CHF 20.80
:
: Geschichte
: English
Thomas Jefferson had a radical dream for higher education. Designed tobecome the first modern public university, the University of Virginia was envisioned as a liberalcampus with no religious affiliation, with elective courses and student self-government. Nearlytwo centuries after the university's creation, its success now seems preordained-itsfounder, after all, was a great American genius. Yet what many don't know is thatJefferson's university almost failed. In Rot, Riot, andRebellion, award-winning journalists Rex Bowman and Carlos Santos offer a dramaticre-creation of the university's early struggles. Political enemies, powerful religiousleaders, and fundamentalist Christians fought Jefferson and worked to thwart his dream. Richstudents, many from southern plantations, held a sense of honor and entitlement that compelled themto resist even minor rules and regulations. They fought professors, townsfolk, and each other withguns, knives, and fists. In response, professors armed themselves-often with good reason: onewas horsewhipped, others were attacked in their classrooms, and one was twice the target of a bomb. The university was often broke, and Jefferson's enemies, crouched and ready to pounce, lookedconstantly for reasons to close its doors. Yet from its tumultuous, early days,Jefferson's university-a cauldron of unrest and educational daring-blossomed intothe first real American university. Here, Bowman and Santos bring us into the life of the Universityof Virginia at its founding to reveal how this once shaky institution grew into a novel,American-style university on which myriad other U.S. universities weremodeled.