Description
Book SynopsisThis book studies Oxford University''s transformationand the political hazards for academics that ensuedwhen, after World War II, it changed from a private liberal-arts club with aristocratic pretensions into a state university heavily committed to the natural sciences, and with a middle-class constituency and a meritocratic ethos.
Despite these changes, the author shows that Oxford has not been able to elude its long-standing Brideshead Revisited reputation. This antiquated image became a source of difficulties when the Labour Party in the 1960''s sought to expand educational opportunities to promote the cause of social justice. In the 1980''s the University again came under attack, this time for its supposedly anti-industrial ethos, as Margaret Thatcher''s Conservative Party attempted to reverse Britain''s economic decline.
The largely unrecognized process of internal change at Oxford is shown to have been driven by two distinct dynamics: its scientists took adv
Trade Review
"Soares writes a lively narrative full of interesting sketches of individuals and events. He navigates the arcane relationships between the Oxford colleges and the University with great clarity. And he deftly handles the ironies of the "Oxford Myth" and its obfuscation of the realities of modern Oxford." -- History of Education Quarterly
"Once there was an ancient foundation, a seat of privilege and powerful connections. Then, quickly, quietly, working from within, it modernized itself. But old myths clung like ivy, failing to reflect the meritocratic make-over, and exposing it in due course to attacks from the Left and Right—attacks to which it was all the more vulnerable for the loss of its old Establishment friends and new dependence on the public purse. This is the tale told by Joseph Soares in The Decline of Privilege: The Modernization of Oxford University, and he tells it enormously well, with a wealth of carefully researched detail, a sharp sense of paradox, and a nice balance between intellectual framework and the living zest of incident and personality." -- Oxford Today
Table of Contents
Introduction: the Oxford myth Part I. The Transformation of Oxford: 1. Academic autonomy and money matters: Oxford goes public 2. The making of Oxford as a middle-class institution: admissions controversies 3. Oxford moves into the natural sciences 4. St. Catherine's College: renewal of the collegiate tradition Part II. Oxford Embattled: 5. Labour politics and the high tide of internal reform: academia challenged 6. Thatcher politics: academia dethroned Conclusion 7. Dilemmas of academic authority Notes References Index.
