From Every Stormy Wind That Blows - by S Jonathan Bass (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Founded in 1841 in Marion, Alabama, Howard College provided a Christian liberal arts education for young men living along the old southwestern frontier. The founders named the school after eighteenth-century British reformer John Howard, whose words and deeds inspired the type of enlightened moral agent and virtuous Christian citizen the institution hoped to produce.

In From Every Stormy Wind That Blows, S. Jonathan Bass provides a comprehensive history of Howard College, which in 1965 changed its name to Samford University. According to Bass, the "idea" of Howard College emanated from its founders' firm commitment to orthodox Protestantism, the tenets of Scottish philosophy, the British Enlightenment's emphasis on virtue, and the moral reforms of the age. From the Old South, through the Civil War and Reconstruction, to the New South, Howard College adapted to new conditions while continuing to teach the necessary ingredients to transform young southern men into useful and enlightened Christian citizens.

Throughout its history, Howard College faced challenges both within and without. As with other institutions in the South, slavery played a central role in its founding, with most of the college's principal benefactors, organizers, and board of trustees earning financial gains from enslaved labor. The Civil War swept away the college's large endowment and growing student enrollment, and the school never regained a solid financial footing during the subsequent decades--barely surviving bankruptcy and public auction.

In 1887, with the continued decline of southern agriculture, Howard College moved to a new campus on the outskirts of Birmingham, where its president, Rev. Benjamin Franklin Riley, a well-known New South economic booster, fought to restore the college's financial health. Despite his best efforts, Howard struggled economically until local bankers offered enough assistance to allow the institution to enter the twentieth century with a measure of financial stability.

The challenges and changes wrought by the years transformed Howard College irrevocably. While the original "idea" of the school endured through its classical curriculum, by the 1920s the school had all but lost its connections to John Howard and its founding principles. From Every Stormy Wind That Blows is a fascinating look into this storied institution's history and Samford University's origins.

Review Quotes

"Bass's From Every Stormy Wind That Blows is exhaustively researched, deftly written, and forthrightly premised. As Samford's university historian, Bass has the full scope of university archives at his disposal, and it shows. . . . In less than three hundred pages of eloquent yet accessible prose, Bass thus offers his estimation of Samford University's worthy roots."--Journal of Southern History

"Presents a new perspective on the broader evolution of both the American South and higher education. . . . Although a bit niche in scope, this institutional history provides a fresh lens through which to better understand the sociocultural dynamics of the 19th-century South and the role education played in its progress into modernity. Recommended."--CHOICE

"Howard College . . . was named for the eighteenth-century English philanthropist John Howard, who embodied its ideal combination of values--faith, intellect, benevolence, and virtue. Jonathan Bass has written an immensely thorough account based on extensive use of manuscripts and newspapers, showing how the college survived war, Reconstruction, and copious criticism to become a valued institution of the New South."--David W. Bebbington, author of Baptists through the Centuries: A History of a Global People

"In this thoroughly researched and compellingly written account, Jonathan Bass puts the lie to the dismissive stereotype of evangelically affiliated colleges and universities as historically dedicated to instilling and reinforcing church doctrine at the expense of nurturing intellectual growth. By expertly integrating his study into an evolving regional and national narrative, Bass renders it all the more remarkable."--James C. Cobb, author of Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity

"Jonathan Bass masterfully intertwines the history of a beloved institution of higher learning with deep knowledge of the history of the nineteenth-century United States, reform movements, and the development of the South."--Kathleen Zebley Liulevicius, author of Rebel Salvation: Pardon and Amnesty of Confederates in Tennessee

"Jonathan Bass's history is a goldmine for anyone associated with Samford, but also for those who are concerned about southern intellectual history, the history of Alabama and its many Baptists, or the fate of Christian liberal arts education in America."--Mark A. Noll, author of America's Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911

"Jonathan Bass's new book is far more than a meticulous institutional biography. It seamlessly merges the newest modern thoughts about race with surging new interpretations about religion below the Mason-Dixon line. Bass also reveals his noted intimate knowledge of daily life in Birmingham and Alabama. A vital read showing once again that higher-education history is crucial to southern and American history."--Tennant S. McWilliams, author of New Lights in the Valley: The Emergence of UAB

About the Author

S. Jonathan Bass is professor of history and university historian at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and the author of He Calls Me by Lightning: The Life of Caliph Washington and the Forgotten Saga of Jim Crow, Southern Justice, and the Death Penalty.