American Higher Education, 1945-1970: A Personal Report (INSCRIBED to Stanford University President J. Wallace Sterling)

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978. 1st. A brief, but particularly emotional inscription from the author to Stanford University President J. Wallace Sterling, appears on the front flyleaf. "For Wally - / who was there, / With warm regard, / Nate/May 1978." Dr. Pusey was the former President of Harvard University. Octavo; [x], 204pp. A Fine copy in like dust jacket (with a short closed tear to upper rear edge) of the First Edition wtih a unique association. Drs. Pusey and Sterling, as Presidents of arguably the two most influential academic institutions in the country, each were directly confronted with the student protest movement in the late 1960's and the end of innocence. At Stanford, demonstrators occupied the Old Student Union Building vowing to remain until their demands were met. Dr. Sterling ultimately accepted a faculty committee's
recommendations for leniency ‘with serious misgivings.'

Soon, at Harvard, protesters, led by the radical Students for a Democratic Society, took over the main administration building. Pusey responded by calling in state and local police officers who, attired in riot gear, drove out the protesters with batons and tear gas.

Although their eventual responses to student protests was quite different, both presidents soon chose early retirement after the showdowns on their respective campuses.