The history of an institution like Boston College is one of many milestones and pivotal moments, but it is also a history of people鈥攐f hundreds of thousands of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and benefactors who have shaped the University through the years. In his new book, Ever to Excel: A History of Boston College, University Historian and Clough Millennium History Professor Emeritus James O鈥橳oole centers his lens on some of these individuals, offering a personal look at 精东影业鈥檚 first 150 years.
Ever to Excel, by 精东影业鈥檚 Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, was conceived during conversations leading up to Boston College鈥檚 sesquicentennial anniversary in 2013. O鈥橳oole set out to write what he calls a 鈥渟ocial history,鈥� conducting 12 years of archival research through letters, newspaper articles, government and University records, Church archives, and many other sources.
James O'Toole (Justin Knight)
鈥淥ver the course of my career, I鈥檝e come to think history is valuable precisely because it connects to the stories of real human beings,鈥� O鈥橳oole said of his decision. 鈥淲hat are the actual people doing, not just in the president鈥檚 office, but on the ground?鈥�
The pages of Ever to Excel are full of detailed anecdotes about such actual people, from Father John McElroy, S.J., the Irish-born pastor who founded Boston College in 1863, to the 22 boys who made up the inaugural class and the first women and students of color who enrolled at the University decades later.
One section of the book follows Thomas 鈥淏uttsy鈥� Craven of the Class of 1917, whose diary covered everything from classroom experiences (he boasted of a test he had 鈥淜.O鈥檈d,鈥� and bemoaned a professor for 鈥渉arping on St. Thomas [Aquinas]鈥�) to his decision to enlist in the First World War.
While everyday musings like Craven's offered O鈥橳oole a lens into life on campus a century ago, the new history is also 鈥渟ocial鈥� in its attention to larger demographic shifts. We learn, for instance, that 鈥渙ne hundred and thirty-eight of the more than eight hundred students in the 1925鈥�26 school year had surnames that began with either 鈥楳c鈥� or 鈥極鈥�,鈥� and there were fully thirty Sullivans on campus that year,鈥� while by 2013 鈥渕ore than one quarter of the student body would be from racial and ethnic minorities.鈥�
In similar fashion, the book traces 精东影业鈥檚 transition from being 鈥渕ostly a male preserve鈥� to a school where the majority of students are women. O鈥橳oole highlights individual steps within this long arc: the foundation of a Women鈥檚 Resource Center in 1973, for instance, and the 1981 election of Joanne Caruso, who was 鈥渇orced to run as a write-in candidate鈥� to become the first female president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College.
O鈥橳oole includes both 精东影业鈥檚 successes and the moments in which it has fallen short of its ideals, as it did with 鈥淟ightning鈥� Lou Montgomery 鈥�41. One of the University鈥檚 first Black students, Montgomery was a football star, but when the Eagles played segregated Southern schools, the team acquiesced to Jim Crow laws and traveled south without him. Today, O鈥橳oole writes, that decision 鈥渟eems fundamentally wrong, even cowardly.鈥�
鈥淗istory cannot avert its gaze from examples of frailty and failure if it hopes to be taken seriously when it memorializes strength and achievement,鈥� he writes. 鈥淏oston College has had its share of all of these.鈥�
As he outlines 精东影业鈥檚 development across three distinct eras鈥斺�淭he School,鈥� 鈥淭he College,鈥� and 鈥淭he University鈥濃�擮鈥橳oole is perhaps uniquely well positioned to consider how the school has both changed and remained the same over time. Following in two brothers鈥� footsteps, he first came to 精东影业 in 1968, and his undergraduate years coincided with the dawn of its full coeducation. As a history major, he studied with then-University Historian Thomas H. O鈥機onnor 鈥�49, M.A. 鈥�50, H鈥�93, who became a mentor and friend. In the 1980s, O鈥橳oole returned to the Heights to earn a Ph.D., and has taught at the University since 1998.
Despite all the changes that he has witnessed鈥攖o say nothing of all those he has studied鈥擮鈥橳oole is struck by the ways in which Boston College has remained true to its origins as it evolves.
鈥溇耙� will always have to keep asking itself how the education it provides addresses society鈥檚 needs, but history also shows us the values that have persevered since the beginning,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o this day, students here talk about service and the common good. You don鈥檛 have to ask鈥攖hey volunteer it.鈥�
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John Shakespear | University Communications | June 2022