New Lights in the Valley

New Lights in the Valley: The Emergence of UAB is a 2007 book written by Tennant McWilliams, a longtime UAB history professor and former Dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. It is a scholarly narrative of UAB from its early beginnings through the mid 1990s.

From its early days as a struggling offshoot of the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, UAB's journey to its current status as a major university has been a bumpy but interesting one. The book explores the whole range of historical considerations, including UAB's similarities and connections to trans-Atlantic civic universities; the irony of the shift from Big Steel to Big Medicine in Birmingham; the visionary administrations of Joseph Volker and others; and the evolving decision to make non-medical life at UAB less of a commuter experience and more of a traditional campus experience.