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Aspiring to Greatness: West Virginia University Since World War II. By Ronald L. Lewis. Foreword by Charles M. Vest. (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2013. Pp. xvi, 640. $39.99, ISBN 978-1-938228-42-1.)
The level of detail in Aspiring to Greatness: West Virginia University Since World War II is matched by its length and heft. Renowned Appalachian scholar, historian laureate of West Virginia, and professor emeritus at West Virginia University, Ronald L. Lewis begins his opus with the postwar development of the university as the basis for the modem school that followed. Through his careful retelling of the highlights, low points, events, and personalities of West Virginia University's past seven decades, he presents the school's contemporary history and charts the changes and trends in higher education since the end of World War II.
The title of the book, Aspiring to Greatness, encapsulates the ongoing efforts of leaders at West Virginia University to overcome obstacles and become an elite, comprehensive university. Like that of...