Circuit Riders for Mental Health: The Hogg Foundation in Twentieth-Century Texas by William S. Bush (review)

As the state of Texas is currently struggling with issues of mental health policy and funding and as wealthy Americans are using their fortunes to gut the nation's social safety net, it is important to look back at a time when Texas philanthropists used their money to develop a statewide system to provide "public education, advocacy, and social change" regarding mental illness (p. 8). In this book, William S. Bush, a history professor at Texas A&M University–San Antonio, examines the more-than-seventy-year history of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and its relationship to public policy in the Lone Star State. An innovative public-private partnership between the heirs to the Hogg family fortune and the University of Texas (UT), the Hogg Foundation was established in 1939 with a mission to "provide a 'fund' for a 'mental health program' for 'the people of Texas'" (p. 24). By combining a history of the foundation's work in Texas with a discussion of the changing ideas about mental health and mental illness in the United States, Bush describes the "public educational activities" of foundation personnel working "to include diverse populations in its mental health outreach efforts" (pp. 25, 29). Though a bit hagiographic and uncritical at times, Bush's work reminds readers of the value of private money working for the public good through the auspices of major research institutions.

Established by the children of former Texas governor James S. Hogg, who amassed a fortune in the East Texas oil boom, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health reflected the family's interest in the early-twentieth-century mental hygiene movement. Ima and Mike Hogg, fueled by their father's interest in improving Texas's institutions for the mentally ill while he was governor as well as by personal experiences with depression, approached UT representatives upon the death of their brother, Will C. Hogg, to develop an endowment that "would be used for a mental health program" (p. 20). After some initial wrangling over the particulars of the relationship between the university and the family's bequest, Ima Hogg shaped the foundation according to her vision of an organization to advocate for improving mental health care for all Texans. In 1940 she and UT president Homer Price Rainey chose Robert Lee Sutherland, a nationally known sociologist and mental health advocate, to lead the foundation. He maintained the position for almost thirty years and made the foundation the leading mental health organization in Texas. It says volumes about the foundation's mission and "Miss Ima" Hogg's ideals and political clout that before heading the foundation, Sutherland was best known for his work with the American Youth Commission's Negro Project. As "both a skilled diplomat and an unconventionally down-to-earth intellectual," Sutherland pushed for the foundation-sponsored mental health advocates, whom he called "'circuit riders for mental health,'" to have a visible presence throughout Texas (pp. 27, 32). Through this localized interdisciplinary approach to mental health, Sutherland and the Hogg Foundation both reflected and helped influence changing patterns of mental health services in the post–World War II era.

Bush traces the foundation's work through the Sutherland era and beyond, paying attention to both Texas politics and national mental health concerns. He is especially good at analyzing the foundation's role in the transition from institutional care to a more community-centered approach. The issues associated with mental health care had never seemed more important in Texas than on August 1, 1966, when UT student Charles Whitman killed eleven people in a sniper attack from the top of the iconic tower on the university's campus. In response, the foundation led state attempts to improve student mental health services in order to prevent another such tragedy. While Bush does a good job examining mental health issues in Texas...