The Texas Book: Profiles, History, and Reminiscences of the University

by Holland, Richard A.

• ISBN13: 9780292714298
• ISBN10: 0292714297
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-10
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

As the University of Texas at Austin celebrates its 125th anniversary, it can justly claim to be a "university of the first class," as mandated in the Texas Constitution. The university's faculty and student body include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur "genius award," and Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, as well as members of learned societies all over the world. UT's athletic programs are said to be the best overall in the United States, and its libraries, museums, and archives are lauded in every educated part of the world. Texas alumni have made their marks in law, engineering, geology, business, journalism, and all fields of the sciences, arts, and entertainment. The Texas Book gathers together personality profiles, historical essays, and first-person reminiscences to create an informal, highly readable history of UT. Many fascinating characters appear in these pages, including visionary president and Ransom Center founder Harry Huntt Ransom, contrarian English professor and Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie, legendary regent and lightning rod Frank C. Erwin, and founder of the field of Mexican American Studies, Américo Paredes. The historical pieces recall some of the most dramatic and challenging episodes in the university's history, including recurring attacks on the school by politicians and regents, the institution's history of segregation and struggles to become a truly diverse university, the sixties' protest movements, and the Tower sniper shooting. Rounding off the collection are reminiscences by former and current students and faculty, including Walter Prescott Webb, Willie Morris, Betty Sue Flowers, J. M. Coetzee, and Barbara Jordan, who capture the spirit of the campus at moments in time that defined their eras.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(10)
Richard A. Holland
Profiles
J. Frank Dobie: A Reappraisal	11	(10)
Don Graham
The Woman Who Ran Ransom's University	21	(14)
Harold Billings
Some Blues for a Trio	35	(6)
Chad Oliver
A Particular Friend of Shakespeare's	41	(4)
William Hauptman
On Richard Fleming: Tribute to Richard T. Fleming at Memorial Services, March 16, 1973	45	(8)
Joe B. Frantz
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Chairman Frank	53	(20)
Richard A. Holland
Americo Paredes and Rancho UT Austin	73	(6)
Jose Limon
The Week James Michener Died	79	(6)
James Magnuson
History
George W. Brackenridge, George W. Littlefield, and the Shadow of the Past	85	(20)
Richard A. Holland
When the Poor Boys Ruled the Campus: A Requiem for B. Hall	105	(20)
David Dettmer
Campus Architecture: The Heroic Decades	125	(14)
Lawrence Speck
Blacks Challenge the White University	139	(14)
Michael L. Gillette
``Going Towards a Great Library at Texas'': Harry Ransom's Acquisition of the T. E. Hanley Collection	153	(6)
Richard W. Oram
The University Interscholastic League and the Integration of Texas High School Athletics	159	(14)
Bobby Hawthorne
The View from the Tower	173	(4)
John Schwartz
Desegregation, Affirmative Action, and the Ten-Percent Law	177	(18)
Douglas Laycock
Reminiscences
From Cottonwood to the Capital: The University Years	195	(6)
Meade F. Griffin
The Search for William E. Hinds	201	(10)
Walter Prescott Webb
From Mississippi to Texas and Back	211	(12)
Willie Morris
Hairy Ranger, Wonder Wart-Hog, and the Sweet Young Thing: Interviews with Texas Ranger Editors Frank Stack and Pat Brown	223	(8)
Richard A. Holland
The Times They Were A' Changin'	231	(6)
Betty Sue Flowers
Remembering Texas	237	(4)
J. M. Coetzee
The Last Bastion	241	(8)
Julius Whittier
Conviction Values: Two Speeches	249	(6)
Barbara Jordan
Acknowledgments	255