Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University
By R McCaughey
Publisher: Columbia University Press 2003 760 Pages
ISBN: 0231130082
PDF 6 MB

The elaborate mosaic that displays as it should be displayed Columbia's long and rich history. This is an incomparable account of a great institution rooted inextricably in a great city.

I got the book at my 30th Columbia College reunion last year, but have just finished it. It made me super-nostalgic for my college days. I feel that, while the first part of the book, up to 1901 when Nicholas Murray Butler took over as President, is somewhat dry, the second part, consisting of the 20th Century, is insightful, immediate, and riveting. I was there from 1970-1974, and the description of the campus unrest in 1968, 1970, and 1972 is right on the money. The fact that Prof. McCaughey could get oral histories from approximately 1950 or so through to the present meant that he could analyse events through considering the reports and opinions of the major players in that time. I would recommend this book to all alumni/ae and former faculty, administrators, and anyone who would appreciate an intimate portrait, a biography even, of Columbia. And, as the Columbia fight song mentioned in the title of this review concludes, as for Columbia, "We Own New York!" This book tells everyone why that's true.