Abstract

This lecture was presented by WVU professor of history emeritus Ronald L. Lewis on November 5, 2013, as part of the Festival of Ideas Lecture Series at West Virginia University. In 1966, when David C. Hardesty was student body president, he inaugurated the series as a forum for new and innovative ideas. Newly appointed WVU president Hardesty brought the series back to life in 1995. The lecture is taken from Professor Lewis’s research for his book, Aspiring to Greatness: West Virginia University Since World War II (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2013), the first study of the university in the modern era. Unless otherwise cited, all information presented in this lecture is cited in or quoted from Aspiring to Greatness.

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