Description
Book SynopsisThe intertwined stories of the great English 'Varsity' universities have many colourful aspects in common, yet each also boasts elements of true distinctiveness. So while the histories of Oxford and Cambridge are both characterised by seething town and gown rivalries, doctrinal conflicts and heretical outbursts, shifts of political and religious allegiance and gripping stories of individual heroism and defiance, they are also narratives of difference and distinctiveness. G.R. Evans explores the remarkable and unique contribution that Cambridge University has made to society and culture, both in Britain and right across the globe, and will subsequently publish her history of Oxford University to complete a major new history of the two universities. Ranging across 800 years of vivid history, packed with incident, Evans here explores great thinkers such as John Duns Scotus - the 13th century Franciscan Friar who gave his name his name to 'dunces' - and celebrates the extraordinary molecular breakthroughs of Watson and Crick in the 20th century. Moving from the radical new thinking of the Cambridge Platonists and the brilliant scientific discoveries of Isaac Newton to the discovery of the Double Helix and the notorious 'Garden House Hotel Riot' of 1970, the book is published to co-incide with the 800th anniversary of the University's foundation in 1209. The first short history of its kind, it will be a lasting and treasured resource for all Cambridge alumni/ae.
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements 1. Cambridge in living memory: the last hundred years i. Where is the University? ii. Running their own show iii. Shall we let women in? iv. Meeting national needs: putting Cambridge in the spotlight v. The First World War and the spectre of state inspection again vi. Between the Wars vii. World War II and a new world for Cambridge viii Student revolution and eccentric dons: the swinging sixties ix. The Colleges and the University rethink their relationship x. Could Cambridge remain in a world of its own? xi. Cambridge discovers ‘administration’ xii. Cambridge’s academics lose their security xiii. A business-facing Cambridge? xiv. Intellectual property rights and academic freedoms xv. The capsize of CAPSA xv. So where are we now? 2. How it all began i. Europe invents universities ii. How it all began in Cambridge iii. Student life: the beginning of colleges iii. What was it like to study for a degree in medieval Cambridge? iv. The Dunce and the dunces: Cambridge as a backwater 3. Cambridge and the Tudor Revolution i. Margaret Beaumont and John Fisher turn Cambridge’s fortunes round ii. The world as Cambridge’s oyster iii. Cambridge joins the ‘Renaissance’ iv. Erasmus, Luther and a ‘Reformation’ Cambridge iv. The Cambridge translators v. Visitations: the bid for state control of Cambridge vi. Edward VI and Cambridge vii. Queen Mary and the martyrs viii. Queen Elizabeth, Cambridge and protestant nationhood 4. Seventeenth and eighteenth century Cambridge: puritans and scientists i. James I and Cambridge ii. Hybrid vigour iii. The Cambridge Platonists and the redrawing of the boundaries of theology iv. Cambridge adjusts the relationship between God and nature v. Isaac Newton: a Cambridge character in close-up vi. Cambridge ‘networking’ on the international scene vii. Puritan rigour, Civil War and Restoration viii. John Milton and new trends in Cambridge language study ix. From logic to experimental science x. Enlightenment or marking time? 5. The nineteenth century transformation i. Students have fun ii. The early nineteenth century call for reform iii. Scientific research becomes an academic activity with industrial outreach iv. Forming the academic sciences and making them intellectually respectable v. The ‘learned societies’ adjust their standards vi. 'Call him a scientist' vii. Must science exclude theology? viii. Professorships and the emergence of academic specialization ix. Teaching: should new ‘useful ‘ subjects replace the classics? x. Cambridge reconsiders its duty to society: the long legacy of Prince Albert’s Chancellorship xi. Applying science: Cambridge and the industrial uses of university research xii. Widening access xiii. Entrances and exits xiv. Cambridge graduates: good men, good citizens xv. Enter the Cambridge University Reporter Conclusion Glossary Abbreviations Bibliography
