Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh, 1787-1987. By Robert C. Alberts. (Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986. Pp. xvii,446. Illustrations, acknowledgments, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95.) In accepting the challenge to write the two-hundred-year history of the University of Pittsburgh, Robert C. Alberts undertook a monu- mental task. In most cases, he has succeeded admirably. He has pro- duced an institutional biography by which others willbe judged in the future. The work is highly readable, often captures the sense of excitement or drama which surrounded events and makes clear the turbulent and frequently acrimonious world of higher education. Uni- versities, Alberts demonstrates, are curious institutions requiring an almost impossible combination of talent from their leaders. They are often required to bring about major reforms, replace faculty while holding the confidence of the in-house staff, improve the physical plant, raise salaries, and maintain tuition levels while balancing the budget, educating students, and pleasing the board of trustees, public, and alumni. When a search committee, seeking a successor to Acting Chancellor David Kurtzman, listed all of the desired qualities, board Chairman Gwilym Price noted, 'There is only one man in world history who had all those virtues." Another committee member re- sponded, "Andhe did not have a doctor's degree" (p. 344). The most aggressive leaders expectedly have the most difficult time. Alberts has taken his organizational cues from the careers and struggles of these leaders to produce his history, moving the reader from one administration to another. The choice was probably a wise one as a number of persistent themes emerge. Throughout much of the nineteenth century and all of the twentieth, the University of Pittsburgh faced the problems common to most large and many small institutions of higher education. The key recurring issues include: the vision of the mission of the university as reflected by the local trustees vs. that of the chancellor, emphasis on research vs. teaching, big time athletics vs. academic standards, allocation of resources to academic programs or bricks and mortar, the ever-present financial struggles, and more recently, the question of building a university of 179 180 Book Reviews regional or national scope. The fact that three of the university's most prominent and successful chancellors, with a combined total of fifty- six years of service, were either forced out or resigned under fire demonstrates the enormity of the challenge. Those withstrong histori- cal interests will find the section on the nineteenth century disap- pointingly thin (five of thirty-five chapters) but the rich detail of the twentieth century more than overcomes this fault. Alberts is at his best describing and analyzing the fascinating careers of John Bowman (1921-1945) and Edward Litchfield (1955-1965). He appropriately praises Bowman for his success in building the Cathedral of Learning, developing the university medical center, and keeping the institution solvent through the depression. He takes no obvious position on Bowman's feud with the university athletic committee and the resignation of football coach Jock Sutherland.— Like a good detective, Alberts is content to let the—facts the disastrous records of the post-Sutherland football teams speak for themselves. The author is mildly critical of Bowman's purge of the university Liberal Club, his installation of a loyalty pledge for all university students in 1932, his role in the well-known affair of history pro- fessor Ralph Turner, and his censorship of the Pitt News. Bowman's actions clearly violated the basic principle of academic freedom and earned the university a lengthy censure from the American Association of University Professors. For Alberts, however, Bowman remains an enigma. Rejecting the notion that the chancellor was an autocratic ultraconservative, or that he was acting in the interests of Pittsburgh's conservative business groups, Alberts suggests that Bowman simply failed to grasp "a sense of what a university meant" (p. 182). Alberts devotes nearly a fourth of the book to the ten-year administration of Chancellor Edward Litchfield. Acknowledging that Litchfield was unable to deal with his financial problems, perhaps even incapable of believing that a financial crisis existed (p. 319), Alberts makes it clear that it was Litchfield who set Pitt on a new course. He built prestigious new schools and improved existing ones, removed unqualified faculty and attracted new talent including some of the nation's most distinguished professors, and improved the quality of the student body. Through his efforts, he sent an un- mistakable message to the academic community and the corporate world that Pitt intended to take its place among the nation's leading universities. It is an incredible success story, unfortunately over- shadowed by mounting economic difficulties. While the board of trustees probably had no choice other than to call for his resignation, Book Reviews 181 the University of Pittsburgh continues to benefit from the vision of Litchfield. Alberts' work should restore balance and some of the rightful luster to the assessment of his regime as chancellor. Univer- sity presidents and historians of higher education will find this section both familiar and instructive. While Alberts' work might —correctly be called the history of the chancellors— of the university it is clearly history from the top down he does provide a glimpse of other interesting issues. Football, architecture, the Salk polio vaccine, the visit of Soviet Premier Krushchev, and the controversy over the Frick Fine Arts Building all receive extended coverage. Twokey omissions, however, which should not go unnoticed are the lack of attention to student life and to faculty concerns. One gets little understanding of the effects of the tremen- dous changes taking place at the university on either of these important groups. Were they better or worse off after particular reforms were instituted? How did the character of the student body change over time? What were the popular leisure and social time activities? Did the key faculty concerns change from bread-and-butter issues to academic ones as the university became more affluent? One might suggest that including some aspects of the social history of the university would stretch an already long work beyond the reader's tolerance. Such an account, where appropriate, however, could easily replace several of the admittedly fascinating, but not crucial, sections identified above withlittle overall loss. Students and faculty, after all, are the key elements of any university. Without them little else matters. Pitt: The Story of the University of Pittsburgh has clearly filled the goals of the author and the university which commissioned it. The work, while authorized by the university, contains little of the uncritical, praise-filled comments one expects to find in authorized works. Historians, educators, Pitt alumni, and the general public will find itworthy reading. Iwish Ihad written it. B Michael P. Weber Duquesne University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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