The Alabama University Monthly

History of the University of Alabama: Volume One, 1818-1902.

The University of Alabama (UA) is one of the most prominent and fascinating universities in the United States. Volume One of this series explored UA’s 1819 birth, its formative years, its burning by Union soldiers, and its subsequent rebirth in 1871. Volume Two introduces a number of important elements into the ongoing narrative, including: the University’s continual hassle with the radical state government through 1877; a span of only seven years wherein three UA presidents either die in office or in Tuscaloosa shortly after resigning, creating a terrible period of psychological mourning that affected everyone associated with the University; the strict admission of women students, and the effect of this on the faculty, administration, and the cadets; and the establishment of student-written works including a journal, a newspaper, and a yearbook. The volume also looks at the history of unofficial student sports dating from the 1870s and the official birth in 1892 of a school-sanctioned athletic program for football and baseball, the germ of what would eventually be named the Crimson Tide, including the first twelve rocky years of the program. It also explores the successful 1900 Student Rebellion against the military style of student government, a rebellion that would rock the very soul of the school, involving the state press, the legislature, the governor, the alumni, and the citizens of Alabama, and which witnessed the fall of the commandant and eventually of the president, thus wrenching the students out of their fluctuating but often sorrowful psychological state of mind into an ever-evolving psychology and experience of success.