The University of Oxford A New History

by Evans, G. R.

• ISBN13: 9781848851146
• ISBN10: 1848851146
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-15
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Summary

The University of Oxford was a medieval wonder. After its foundation in the late 12th century it designed one of Europe's most admired syllabuses for the study of the liberal arts (the trivium and the quadrivium) and theology, and attracted teachers of international calibre and fame. The ideas of brilliant thinkers like Robert Grosseteste (who in the early 13th century mastered and taught Greek when almost no-one else was doing so), pioneering Franciscan philosopher Roger Bacon (zealous proponent of experimental science) and reforming Christian humanist John Colet redirected traditional scholasticism and helped usher in the Renaissance. In this latest instalment of her major two-volume history of the great rival institutions of Oxford and Cambridge, G R Evans turns to the elder university and reveals a powerhouse of learning and culture. Over a span of more than 800 years Oxford has nurtured some of the greatest minds, while right across the globe its name is synonymous with educational excellence. From dangerous political upheavals caused by the radical and inflammatory ideas of John Wyclif to the bloody 1555 martyrdoms of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley; and from John Ruskin's innovative lectures on art and explosive public debate between Charles Darwin and his opponents to gentler meetings of the Inklings in the 'Bird and Baby', Evans brings Oxford's revolutionary events, as well as its remarkable intellectual journey, to vivid and sparkling life.

Author Biography

G. R. Evans (an Oxford graduate who lives in that city) is Professor Emerita of Intellectual History and Medieval Theology in the University of Cambridge. She has written many widely respected books in the fields of history and religion, and also serves as editor of the "I.B.Tauris History of the Christian Church" series.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xii
List of Illustrations	p. xv
Introduction: coming to Oxford	p. 1
Towards Oxford today	p. 11
Not an Inkling of the future?	p. 11
Riding out the First World War	p. 18
Oxford takes the state's penny	p. 22
Letting the women in: 1920 and after	p. 27
Between the Wars	p. 36
The Second World War and its aftermath	p. 40
A Symposium at Worcester: the 1950s to the 1980s	p. 48
From student protest to the battle for academic freedom	p. 62
The 1990s and the beginning of another Oxford century	p. 64
Oxford's Middle Ages	p. 79
Oxford from the inside: inventing a University	p. 79
Designing a syllabus	p. 96
Housing the scholars	p. 104
Quarrels and confrontations	p. 110
Oxford and the interfering Tudors	p. 121
Renaissance in Oxford	p. 121
Reformation in Oxford	p. 130
Consequences for the colleges	p. 138
Another inspection: Edward VI goes 'visiting'	p. 143
Mary Tudor's Visitors: the volte-face	p. 150
Elizabeth places Oxford under the statutes of the realm	p. 155
Teaching the Arts from the late sixteenth century	p. 162
Oxford keeps up with the times	p. 167
Oxford and the state	p. 167
A society of scholars: student life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries	p. 188
Independent intellectuals and new styles of academic life	p. 201
Teaching: the changing intellectual life of Oxford	p. 206
Experiments in collegiate life and new ideas about universities	p. 230
The Bodleian Library and the University Press	p. 236
The nineteenth-century transformation	p. 245
Varieties of student life at Oxford	p. 245
The Oxford Movement	p. 248
State interference and the threat of external 'reform' brings about major change	p. 254
What became of the liberal arts?	p. 262
Bringing the syllabus up to date: the Oxford reform of classical education	p. 270
Oxford studies the sciences	p. 278
Examinations reformed	p. 291
Oxford does its bit for social mobility	p. 298
Conclusion	p. 309
Notes	p. 313
Select bibliography	p. 339
Index	p. 349
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