Keepers of the Spirit: The Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, 1876-2001.

By John A. Adams Jr. Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University, No. 89. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001. Pp. [xx], 396. $40.00, ISBN 1-58544-126-0.)

A 1973 graduate of Texas A&M University, John A. Adams Jr. provides a detailed and positive examination of his alma mater. Founded in 1876 from the Morrill Land Grant Act, Texas A&M contained a cadet corps from its inception. Adams sets out to enmesh the cadet corps in the history of the school and larger national movements. His text successfully details the history of the corps at the largest civilian military college.

Keepers of the Spirit proceeds chronologically. Administrators drive most sections of the text (especially in chapters on "the Ross years" and "the Rudder era"), with particular attention paid to presidents and commandants. The book opens in the nineteenth century, and these first chapters are the most episodic. Adams improves the connection between events and the school in his examination of World War I and the implementation of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). He catalogs the alumni's large enlistment in the nation's armed conflicts. Finally, the last third of the book examines the 1970s to 2001, a period missing from earlier institutional histories, when the struggle to maintain a military program in the post-Vietnam era included adding Naval ROTC and women.

The narrative blends the college and the cadet corps to the extent that the significance of the corps is often obscured. Indeed, the corps has represented a smaller fraction of the student population since 1960 (less than 5 percent as of 2000). Adams asserts that this fact "did nothing to undermine its influence as the keeper of Aggie traditions" (p. 293). He casts Aggie cadets in terms of the southern military tradition and the citizen-soldier ideal, and the university's continuing military tradition and esprit de corps represent the sentimental core of Adams's work. In the late twentieth century, however, the university questioned and decreased the corps's role at the school. For example, building the annual bonfire changed from a corps tradition to an all-student one. Increasing the amount of attention paid to cadet and noncadet interaction would have highlighted both the relationship between the two groups and the corps's unique position.

The descriptive features of the book often outweigh the analytical ones. Covering a variety of topics at a rapid clip, Adams focuses on tensions over the growth of the student body, funding, facilities, and sports. He also quickly reviews A&M's connection to other military institutions but omits a great deal. For example, he describes a 1908 student strike and a 1979-1985 Title IX discrimination suit over the hazing of a female cadet without making comparative reference to other institutions' similar experiences. After some discussion of the integration of women in the 1970s, African Americans' admission to the school merits one paragraph (p. 219). The larger state and national context of higher education could have been presented in a more complex manner, which might have helped make the book more interesting to those outside the Aggie community.

Adams provides a detailed institutional history with many interesting anecdotes and stories. Local media coverage, oral histories, and photographs supplement his extensive use of institutional archival reports and correspondence. Anyone interested in Texas A&M University will be impressed with this well-researched and attractive book.

JENNIFER R. GREEN
Central Michigan University