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Virginia Tech, Land-Grant University 18721997. History of a School, a State, and a Nation. By PETER WALLENSTEIN. Blacksburg, Virginia: Pocahontas Press Inc., 1997. xviii, 318 pp. $25.00 paper.
IN the preface to this lively and deeply interesting book, its author, Peter Wallenstein, describes its genesis in preparations for an undergraduate course on the history of Virginia Tech. Written in a matter of months and designed to be accessible to students, and infused with obvious affection for the institution, this work displays broad understanding of the issues that are at the heart of the school's development. From the founding of the all-white, allmale, military-oriented Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1872, through several awkward name changes and periods of uneven growth, to the modem day Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Wallenstein relates the school's history in the widest context. While never losing sight of the intimate details that create much of any campus's personality, he deftly shows how the birth and growth of the school depended to a great degree on events that occurred in far-off places, on ideas that were advanced by people who may never have laid eyes on the school.
Rather than organize the...