Light on the Hill: A History of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Great book that provides excellent insight into the formation and evolution of the first, and best, public university in America. Would strongly recommend to any graduate of UNC.

College and university histories are notoriously weak, most serving as feel-good souvenirs for anxious, sports-crazed alumni. This one is an exception to that rule. The book is a well-written narrative history, not a glossy coffee table book full of NCAA highlights. The story begins in 1789, and progresses through chapters, ordered by chronology, right up to the 1980s. The original text was published in 1992, so there's no history of recent athletic exploits. The book's core is the story of the economic and political development of an essential academic institution, with athletic and social subplots. There are few photographs, the author preferring to allow the words to do the work. And the emphasis is on the words, for Snider is not a "facts and figures" historian. Generally, I recommend this book for readers curious about the founding and growth of our early state universities. Whereas private, sectarian colleges proliferated in New England, the secular state university has a particularly distinguished history in the South. The universities of North Carolina (1789), South Carolina (1801), Virginia (1819), Tennessee (1794), Georgia (1801) and Alabama (1831) were all early foundations modeled on the example set in Chapel Hill.

As the first public university in the United States, UNC truly served as a "light on the hill" in advocating for public higher education. Tar Heels will love learning about the history of their illustrious university and all its traditions and legacies. This book is historically accurate and intellectually provocative, while still compelling and interesting for leisure reading. This is a great gift for any Tar Heel!