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E-book
Author Gross, Thomas W

Title Free Spirit A Biography of Mason Welch Gross
Published New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, 2021

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Description 1 online resource (343 p.)
Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Author's Note -- 1 Prologue: The Inauguration, 1959 -- 2 Postmark: Willcox, Arizona, 1928 -- 3 Postmark: Cambridge, England, 1930 -- 4 The Blind Date, 1939 -- 5 Postmark: Somewhere in Italy, 1944 -- 6 The Homecoming, 1945 -- 7 Goodbye to New York, 1946 -- 8 In the Second Chair, 1949 -- 9 Rutgers v. the Red Scare, 1954 -- 10 Philosophy of Education v. the "Big Lie" -- 11 The Inauguration, 1959 -- 12 Into the Fishbowl, 1959 -- 13 The Cultural Wasteland, 1959 -- 14 Nothing at Rutgers Was Ever Easy -- 15 Crisis, 1961 -- 16 Faith and Reason -- 17 Score Once More, 1965 -- 18 The Inflection Point, 1965 -- 19 The Silent Steinway, 1965 -- 20 The Jewel in the Crown -- 21 The Year Everything Went Wrong, 1968 -- 22 Law and Order, 1968 -- 23 Faith and Reason v. Law and Order -- 24 June 1970 -- 25 Complicated, 1971 -- 26 Guggenheim, 1972 -- 27 The Door Opens, Then Closes Tight, 1975-1977 -- 28 The Last Post, 1977 -- 29 The Hope That Lies within You, 2020 -- Appendix: Personal Histories, Correspondence, Reminiscences, and Interviews -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary "Mason W. Gross, philosopher, educator, athlete, and musician, was inaugurated as president of Rutgers in 1959, when American universities were seen as the key to America's future success. Within ten years, during the turbulent sixties, with its struggles over civil rights and the Vietnam War that played out on college campuses, these same universities were viewed as seeds of discord and communism by a conservative populace that had grown tired of riots, inflation, and general unrest. Mason Gross was instrumental in building Rutgers from a sleepy private college to a major state university, but he is best known for taking a stand on controversial public issues, including improving the educational opportunities for minorities and defending the civil rights of a professor who chose to speak his mind about Vietnam. This biography builds the story of how he came to believe so strongly about these issues, and why he was willing to stand up for what is right, eventually, and tragically, at the cost of his own health. For his support of academic freedom and civil rights, in 1966 he received the prestigious Alexander Meiklejohn Award from the American Association of University Professors"-- Provided by publisher
Analysis Mason Welch Gross, Biography, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers, Rutgers University, professor, teacher, philosophy, university, history, Education, memoir, public university, Red Scare, civil rights movement, civil rights era, Vietnam War, public figure, faculty, Mason Gross School of the Arts, scarlet knights, academia, higher education, college, research university
Notes Description based upon print version of record
Subject Gross, Mason Welch, 1911-1977.
SUBJECT Gross, Mason Welch, 1911-1977 fast
Subject Rutgers University -- Presidents -- Biography
Rutgers University -- History -- 20th century
SUBJECT Rutgers University fast
Subject Presidents
Genre/Form Biographies
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 1978808364
9781978808362