The author emphasizes the role of individuals and yet makes it quite evident that by the time of her centenary in the early days of World War II, Queen's had developed an organic vitality through which the vicissitudes occasioned by external fortunes or by internal tensions could be transcended. Throughout the period covered by this volume Queen's faced a long, hard struggle for adequate resources for research in terms of space, equipment, and most importanly, faculty time; the gradual development of graduate work; and the building of library resources. There was firm and creative leadership through the crises of the war and its aftermath and a renewal of optimism through the final decades of this history.

Frederick W. Gibson's profile page

"Gibson faces squarely and recounts carefully unhappy, unpleasant, and even unsavoury episodes which puncture any inflated image of Queen's as other than a human and humanly flawed institution. Yet his treatment of the darker parts of the story shows that, in the end, better instincts prevailed and that Queen's can hold its head high as a place of real liberty." Ronald L. Watts, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Queen's University.