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Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska
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 at first was confined to four city blocks and didn’t have a building until 1871. Cows grazed the campus. But soon the high aspirations of the state began to be realized. Nebraska boasted the first department of psychology west of the Mississippi River, and its faculty included national prominent scholars like botanist Charles Bessey and linguist A. H. Edgren (later a member of the Nobel Commission). Willa Cather, Roscoe Pound, Mari Sandoz, and Louise Pound ranked among its early graduates. And it developed a reputation for excellence in collegiate athletics.
Written by a beloved member of the faculty, this history shows both why Robert E. Knoll is so devoted to the University as well as the tests such devotion must endure. Its history is hardly one of placid growth and unimpeded progress. Its regents, administration, faculty, and students have periodically fought one 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.
The University at first was confined to four city blocks and didn’t have a building until 1871. Cows grazed the campus. But soon the high aspirations of the state began to be realized. Nebraska boasted the first department of psychology west of the Mississippi River, and its faculty included national prominent scholars like botanist Charles Bessey and linguist A. H. Edgren (later a member of the Nobel Commission). Willa Cather, Roscoe Pound, Mari Sandoz, and Louise Pound ranked among its early graduates. And it developed a reputation for excellence in collegiate athletics.
Written by a beloved member of the faculty, this history shows both why Robert E. Knoll is so devoted to the University as well as the tests such devotion must endure. Its history is hardly one of placid growth and unimpeded progress. Its regents, administration, faculty, and students have periodically fought one 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.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1995
7 people want to read
About the author
Robert E. Knoll
11 books2 followersDuring his 40-year career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Robert E. Knoll taught generations of students to enjoy the rich beauty of English language and literature, pioneered a number of innovative teaching initiatives, was an exemplary academic citizen and first-rate scholar. At his retirement in 1990, he was Paula and Woody Varner Professor of English. He also had been a George Holmes Distinguished Professor, an honor conferred only on the university’s most-esteemed faculty. Additionally, he had received a distinguished teaching award from UNL’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Knoll was a specialist in Shakespeare, but he also taught courses in Plains literature, English Renaissance literature, English history, American and British literature between 1922 and 1950, and composition. He was an adviser to the NU Student Council, a precursor the current UNL student government, served on the faculty senate, chaired the Willa Cather centennial festival in 1973 and the Wright Morris centennial festival in 1976. In 1988, he was named Nebraska’s Professor of the Year by the national Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. He was a Fulbright lecturer in Graz, Austria; a Woods fellow; and served a fellowship at Yale University, appointed by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a founding member of UNL’s Centennial College, an innovative undergraduate teaching initiative in 1968. He was a founding member and fellow in UNL’s Center for Great Plains Studies.
In 1997, the UNL Alumni Association gave Knoll its “Doc” Elliott Award, conferred on emeritus faculty members in honor of their outstanding record of service and caring to students.
Knoll, a 1943 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Nebraska, joined the faculty in 1950 as an assistant professor of English; he was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 1957, and promoted to full professor in 1961. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1947 and 1950 respectively. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943-1946.
Knoll wrote dozens of critical essays, books, television treatments and other scholarly works. He was a scholar of artist-writer Weldon Kees, publishing several books about Kees work and life. He also published works on writers Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and Robert McAlmon. In 1995, he published what has become known as the definitive history of the university, “Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska.” Knoll was particularly suited for the task, as both his parents and many members of his family were NU graduates and he was personally acquainted with early NU luminaries such as Louise Pound.
Knoll was exceptionally proud of the university. On the occasion of receiving the CASE professor of the year in 1988, Knoll delivered a lecture in which he described, among many things, his belief in the importance of the university.
Knoll was a specialist in Shakespeare, but he also taught courses in Plains literature, English Renaissance literature, English history, American and British literature between 1922 and 1950, and composition. He was an adviser to the NU Student Council, a precursor the current UNL student government, served on the faculty senate, chaired the Willa Cather centennial festival in 1973 and the Wright Morris centennial festival in 1976. In 1988, he was named Nebraska’s Professor of the Year by the national Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. He was a Fulbright lecturer in Graz, Austria; a Woods fellow; and served a fellowship at Yale University, appointed by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a founding member of UNL’s Centennial College, an innovative undergraduate teaching initiative in 1968. He was a founding member and fellow in UNL’s Center for Great Plains Studies.
In 1997, the UNL Alumni Association gave Knoll its “Doc” Elliott Award, conferred on emeritus faculty members in honor of their outstanding record of service and caring to students.
Knoll, a 1943 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Nebraska, joined the faculty in 1950 as an assistant professor of English; he was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 1957, and promoted to full professor in 1961. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1947 and 1950 respectively. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943-1946.
Knoll wrote dozens of critical essays, books, television treatments and other scholarly works. He was a scholar of artist-writer Weldon Kees, publishing several books about Kees work and life. He also published works on writers Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and Robert McAlmon. In 1995, he published what has become known as the definitive history of the university, “Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska.” Knoll was particularly suited for the task, as both his parents and many members of his family were NU graduates and he was personally acquainted with early NU luminaries such as Louise Pound.
Knoll was exceptionally proud of the university. On the occasion of receiving the CASE professor of the year in 1988, Knoll delivered a lecture in which he described, among many things, his belief in the importance of the university.
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May 18, 2011
This book was jam-packed with random UNL history facts and figures, like the top three chancellors, enrollment over the years and how faculty members went on to national prominence. The author, taking great advise from the university leadership, told the UNL story through the eyes of chancellors through the years. Every so often, he updated me on how Husker football grew more popular. The book was too dense for me, though. There were too many names of people who didn't really make huge impacts on the university's future. If this were a fiction novel, the main characters would be James Canfield, Benjamin Andrews and Clifford Hardin. But people like John Selleck, Louise Pound, George Round and Willa Cather were mentioned too. Those people made marks on the university as well, but after reading 200 pages of UNL, some of the names start to blur together. I counted some 870 names in the book. A reader can't remember the significance and impact all those people made. Overall, it was a nice book that ends at 1995, but I could have done without namings of each and every professor and dean and institute director.
Displaying 1 of 1 review