1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910794799303321

Autore

Gross Thomas W.

Titolo

Free spirit : a biography of Mason Welch Gross / / Thomas W. Gross

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick, NJ : , : Rutgers University Press, , [2021]

©2021

ISBN

1-9788-0834-8

1-9788-0836-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (343 pages)

Disciplina

973.099

Soggetti

Presidents

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

The Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick, New Jersey, stands as a memorial to one of Rutgers University’s most influential leaders. Gross started teaching at Rutgers as an assistant professor of philosophy in 1946, but quickly rose through the ranks to become the university’s provost in 1949 and finally its president from 1959 to



1971. He led the university through an era when it experienced both some of its greatest growth and most intense controversies. Free Spirit explores how Gross helped reshape Rutgers from a sleepy college into a world-renowned public research university. It also reveals how he steered the university through the tumult of the Red Scare, civil rights era, and the Vietnam War by taking principled stands in favor of both racial equality and academic freedom. This biography tells the story of how, from an early age, Gross came to believe in the importance of doing what was right, even when the backlash took a toll on his own health. Written by his youngest son Thomas, this book offers a uniquely well-rounded portrait of Gross as both a public figure and a private person. Covering everything from his service in World War II to his stints as a game-show personality, Free Spirit introduces the reader to a remarkable academic leader.