This volume traces the University of Rochester's development from a small college housed in a former hotel in 1850 to its place as a leading research university in 2005. The story is told in eight chapters, each of which chronicles the major issues and decisions the University's leaders faced. Highlights of the story include the University's founding in a city known as the first "western" boomtown; the university's relationship in the early twentieth century with Rochester benefactor George Eastman, which enabled the establishment of world-class schools of music and medicine; and the achievements of Rochester faculty members as researchers on war-related endeavors during World WarII. Author Janice Bullard Pieterse sets her history of the university in the context not only of the fortunes of its home city but of trends and issues in American higher education over the last 150 years.

Janice Bullard Pieterse is a freelance writer and journalist in Rochester, New York.