The University of Illinois: Engine of Innovation

by Frederick E Hoxie (Editor), James R. Barrett (Contribution by), George O Batzli (Contribution by), Claire Benjamin (Contribution by), Jeffrey D Brawn (Contribution by)

Overview

The founding of the university in 1867 created a unique community in what had been a prairie. Within a few years, this creative mix of teachers and scholars produced innovations in agriculture, engineering and the arts that challenged old ideas and stimulated dynamic new industries. Projects ranging from the Mosaic web browser to the discovery of Archaea and pioneering triumphs in women's education and wheelchair accessibility have helped shape the university's mission into a double helix of innovation and real-world change. These essays explore the university's celebrated accomplishments and historic legacy, candidly assessing both its successes and its setbacks. Experts and students tell the eye-opening stories of campus legends and overlooked game-changers, of astonishing technical and social invention, of incubators of progress as diverse as the Beckman Institute and Ebertfest. Contributors: James R. Barrett, George O. Batzli, Claire Benjamin, Jeffrey D. Brawn, Jimena Canales, Stephanie A. Dick, Poshek Fu, Marcelo H. Garcia, Lillian Hoddeson, Harry Liebersohn, Claudia Lutz, Kathleen Mapes, Vicki McKinney, Elisa Miller, Robert Michael Morrissey, Bryan E. Norwood, Elizabeth H. Pleck, Leslie J. Reagan, Susan M. Rigdon, David Rosenboom, Katherine Skwarczek, Winton U. Solberg, Carol Spindel, William F. Tracy, and Joy Ann Williamson-Lott.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252040825
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Frederick E. Hoxie is Swanlund Endowed Chair and Professor of History, American Indian Studies and Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Most recently he is the author of This Indian Country: American Indian Activists and the Place They Made and editor of the Oxford Handbook of American Indian History.

Editorial Reviews

"Great public research universities emerged in the United States over the last 150 years. Unlike anything that had come before, they literally changed the world. Hoxie's compilation is a delightful case study of one such university: Illinois. These delightful vignettes reveal the genius of those whose innovation shaped the academic giants we know today."—Stanley Ikenberry, President Emeritus of the University of Illinois

"A good book for inspiring the Illini alum or historian. . . . Capture[s] a lot of Illinois' history and the innovators who shaped the institution into what we know of it today."—Smile Politely
 

From the Publisher