Malcolm MacLeod begins his history of Memorial University College by describing the forces that promoted the creation of Newfoundland's own higher-education institution and the conditions that frustrated its advancement, such as the uneasy development of educational co-operation between religious denominations. MacLeod goes on to analyse different aspects of institutional life to 1950, such as the institution's governance and patterns of staffing, the students' social backgrounds, and the college's curriculum. He also outlines Memorial's links with other aspects of society and provides the historical and social framework for its development, leading us through the optimism of the twenties and the depression of the thirties to the abandonment of self-government and the overwhelming changes that came with and after the war. He concludes by contrasting Memorial's slow and uncertain progress before 1950 with its achievements since, and by placing Memorial in the context of the development of higher education in Canada and the modernization of Newfoundland.