Kansas' storied past is filled with fascinating firsts, humorous coincidences and intriguing characters. A man who had survived a murderous proslavery massacre in 1858 hanged his would-be executioner five years later. A wealthy Frenchman utilized his utopian ideals to create an award-winning silk-producing commune in Franklin County. A young boy's amputated arm led to the rise of Sprint Corporation. The first victim of the doomed Donner Party met her end in Kansas. In 1947, a housewife in Johnson County, indignant at the poor condition of the local school for black children, sparked school desegregation nationwide. Author and historian Adrian Zink digs deep into the Sunflower State's history to reveal these hidden and overlooked stories.

Here is a through assessment of the development of the University of Kansas during its first century. Clifford S. Griffin traces the University from little more than a high school or preparatory school to a college, and then to a major institution. No mere chronicle of the University's triumphs and progress, this book gives equal attention to the many disappointments and frustrations over the years. Griffin concerns himself not only with the physical growth of the institution, but with the nature of the University's goals and character as well. From John Fraser to W. Clarke Wescoe, each Chancellor of the University of Kansas faced unique problems in shaping the destiny of the ever-expanding institution. They struggled with the perils of an unstable economy, enrollment crises, departmentalization, disagreements with faculty and regents, disputes over open admission and the importance of scholarly research, demands for higher salaries and alteration of the curriculum, and even grasshopper plagues. Each administration competed for legislative appropriations, status, and public support. Anyone who has been associated with the University will find in this history many of the things he remembers best: its social organizations, athletic contests, student pranks, class feuds, and campus politics. Colorful Mount Oread personalities are described—leaders, scholars, politicians, and benefactors. Thirty-six photographs trace different phases of the University's growth. Even those individuals well informed concerning the history of the University will learn much about its past and its potential for the future. In addition, Griffin explores ideas about the purposes and practices of higher education, including the concept of the American state university as a servant of society. In many respects the development of the University paralleled the growth of the state itself; this book is therefore a valuable contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Kansas.