Michigan State College: John Hannah and the Creation of a World University, 1926-1969 by David A. Thomas (review)

134 MichiganHistoricalReview understood that the value of New France as a whole "lay in neither farms, nor furs, nor mines, but rather in the upper country itself: its Indians, coureurs de bois, voyageurs, and Metis traders" (p. 155). As long as France held on to the Upper Country, it prevented Britain from acquiring most of North America and, more importantly, from developing into an even greater power and enlarging its influence amid those countries jockeying for supremacy. The French enterprise in the Upper Country was complex. Still, Skinner makes admirable sense of itwithin about two hundred pages by using both American and French historiographies to present awork that accurately summarizes the innovative research of the past two decades on this topic. In The Upper Country Skinner offers a survey that will be of great help to undergraduate students not only in theUnited States but inCanada aswell. Guillaume Teasdale York University Toronto, Ontario David A. Thomas. Michigan State College: JohnHannah and theCreation of aWorld Universityy 1926-1969. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2008. Pp. 540. Bibliography. Index. Photographs. Cloth, $39.95. As is noted in the introduction to this expansive book on Michigan State College (now Michigan State University), it is the second in a series on the history of that institution. The author has a long familiarity with MSU and East Lansing, where he grew up. He was awriter for theLansing State Journal and has made extensive use of newspaper accounts, interviews, and unpublished speeches and memos, as well as many images in his telling of this forty-three-year period in MSU's history. The book, which is more than five hundred pages long, is an imposing volume; it is organized around themes rather than having an overarching chronological framework. Although Hannah is in evidence in every chapter, it is not always obvious how he drives the story.The book is structured somewhat like a school yearbook, with sections for various aspects of the school year. In this case, the unifying threads are Hannah's tenure as secretary of the college (1926-1941) and then president (1941-1969); each chapter tells an individual story. Some of Book Reviews 135 the topics include: expansion of the physical plant, new programs, sports, and academic life.But the chapters also provide an underlying story ofMSU's response to some of themajor events of a broad swath of the twentieth century?the university afterWorld War Two and during Vietnam, a controversial new curriculum in global/international studies, reaction during the McCarthy era, and issues relating to academic freedom. All had a place inHannah's presidency. With so many examples from diverse sources, Michigan State College also allows the reader a detailed view of changes in higher education over this time period and could provide interesting comparisons with other universities. The interplay between Michigan State College and the other large state school, the University of Michigan, as MSC moved to become a university and then part of the Big Ten, provides one case study of institutional change. Thomas paints a generally positive, but nuanced, portrait of John Hannah and his role in the development of MSU. The book captures the conflicts within the university and its community over such issues as student rights, international programs, athletics, the curriculum, and the appropriate roles of faculty. In John Hannah, the author illustrates an accomplished man in changing times. Thomas clearly has a fondness forMSU and knows its history, so for readers less familiar with MSU it may be more difficult to determine the larger narrative. Because the book is topical, each chapter has its own chronology, making it difficult at times to determine how events from various categories intersect. Concluding sections in each chapter would assist the reader to link the chapters' information. For readers who are graduates of MSU or familiar with higher-education issues in Michigan, this book provides numerous anecdotes, newspaper articles, and biographies of noted faculty, administrators, and students. The index allows the reader to look for people or events of interest and learn about a dynamic period in the history ofMichigan State University. Kathleen Anderson Steeves Consultant inHistory Education George Washington University (ret.) ...