Red Brick in the Land of Steady Habits: Creating the University of Connecticut, 1881-2006

Connecticut has long been called "The Land of Steady Habits," a nickname resulting from the strict morals of its inhabitants, who in the colony's earliest days were governed by rigid Blue Laws regulating public morality. Although Blue Laws no longer exist, this term is still recognized across the state. "Red Bricks," a British term, refers to six universities in England's industrial cities during the late nineteenth century. Unlike the elite Oxford and Cambridge, "Red Bricks" admitted students without regard to class or religion and concentrated on practical skills.

University of Connecticut, rooted in the Storrs Agricultural School (founded in 1881) to teach the farming trade, was more Red Brick than Oxbridge in its origins. In contrast to established private institutions such as Yale, Wesleyan, and Trinity, state-supported UConn was accessible at comparatively low cost to a wide variety of students.

Written in celebration of UConn's 125th anniversary, this volume traces how the university emerged from its foundation as a tiny agricultural college to become the leading public university in New England. Organized chronologically by the administrations of the University of Connecticut's thirteen presidents, Red Brick in the Land of Steady Habits discusses internal developments such as the creation of a major research library, the founding of professional schools, student life, athletics, and national research funding, within the broad historical context of particular presidential eras. The author traces the impact of the Great Depression, World War II and the postwar G.I. Bill, the McCarthy and cold war eras, Vietnam and other protests, diversity and curriculum reform, NCAA athletics, and the economic boom of the 1990s. Throughout, Stave shows how the national and international scene shaped events as Connecticut leaders transformed a serene, rural campus -- a provincial "safety school" -- into a competitive national research university.

BRUCE M. STAVE is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus and Director of the Center for Oral History at the University of Connecticut. He is co-general editor of the Palgrave/Macmillan Studies in Oral History series. His coauthored From the Old Country: An Oral History of European Migration to America (1994; UPNE, 1999) received the Homer Babbidge Award from the Association for the Study of Connecticut History and an award of merit from the Connecticut League of Historical Societies. He is the author or editor of nine other books, including Witnesses to Nuremberg: An Oral History of American Participants at the War Crimes Trials (1998) and The New Deal and the Last Hurrah (1970).