Description:
Examines the life and accomplishments of Frederick Watts (1801-1889) in agricultural innovation and his role in the creation of the institution that would grow into Penn State University.
Brief description: Roger L. Williams served as Associate Vice President and Executive Director of the Penn State Alumni Association and as Affiliate Associate Professor in Penn State's Higher Education Program. He is the author of Evan Pugh's Penn State: America's Model Agricultural College and The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education: George W. Atherton and the Land-Grant College Movement, both published by Penn State University Press.
Review Quotes:
"Frederick Watts and the Founding of Penn State makes a compelling case for the national importance of Pennsylvania in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American social, political, and economic history. It also tells an intriguing, persuasive story that shows how Watts was an influential figure with implications far beyond the particulars of his time and place. Roger L. Williams continues his long record as one of our finest historians of higher education."
--John R. Thelin, author of Going to College in the Sixties