San Diego State University

San Diego State University: A History in Word and Image, by Raymond Starr, is the first comprehensive history of the largest campus in the California State University system. Originally conceived by the late John Adams as a history told through photographs, the project grew into a full-scale institutional history, pairing a rich visual archive with Starr’s narrative of the university’s development. Adams’s generosity made the publication possible, and the resulting 262-page illustrated volume preserves both the texture of campus life and the larger historical forces that shaped SDSU.

Starr traces the institution from its founding in the 1890s as a downtown San Diego teachers college, or Normal School, through its move to the Park Avenue campus and, later, to Montezuma Mesa. Separate chapters follow student life, athletics, and the expansion of academic programs, while also showing how events beyond the campus—including World War I and World War II—altered the university and the lives of those who studied and worked there.

The book charts SDSU’s transformation from a teacher-training institution into a major public comprehensive university with an internationally respected faculty, vital research institutes, joint doctoral programs, and increasingly important academic ties to Mexico and the Pacific Rim. In doing so, San Diego State University: A History in Word and Image is more than a commemorative album: it shows the university’s central place in the history of San Diego and its growing role in national and international intellectual life.