Overview

All Souls College, Oxford, has been both widely praised and roundly abused for its fellows' non-academic pursuits. How was it that members of the college so often held dual citizenship in the worlds of learning and public affairs? Why, instead of becoming teaching 'dons', could they be found in government and politics, in law, diplomacy, and running the empire, in formulating foreign policy (including, supposedly, 'appeasement' of Hitler), in banking, journalism, and the 'republic of letters'? Part of the answer lies in the nature of the foundation. Chichele's medieval college was always meant to be a training ground for careers in Church and government. But the origins of the modern phenomenon of 'prize fellows' active in a wider world beyond Oxford lies in the history of the College during the decades around 1900, and in its 'second foundation' by the Warden, Sir William Anson. The studies collected in this volume explore the context, significance, and legacy of Anson's wardenship. They trace the activities of 'prize' and other fellows, both individually and in groups, in settings that range geographically from London to the capitals of empire and commonwealth in Africa, India, and Australia, and chronologically from the years preceding the First World War to the Suez crisis.

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9780199593705

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Reviews

S. J. D. Green's sparkling demolition of the case Rowse made against Fellows of his own College ... is charitable only in comparison with the demolition of Rowse himself. Michael Bentley, Times Literary Supplement

S. J. D. Green's sparkling demolition of the case Rowse made against Fellows of his own College ... is charitable only in comparison with the demolition of Rowse himself. Michael Bentley, Times Literary Supplement All Souls and the Wider World seeks to estimate the public impact of the college. Compiled by fellows and former fellows, it could easily have degenerated into a work of piety. It is far from that. The contributors are quite ruthless in attacking, with merciless scholarly precision, the idea that the college was the headquarters of an establishment that governed Britain or its empire in the first half of the 20th century. Vernon Bogdanor, New Statesman This book contains many fine essays by distinguished historians such as Adrian Wooldridge, Stephen Cretney, Joe Mordaunt Crook, Sarvepalli Gopal, Jim Davidson, William Roger Louis and John Clarke, on many varied and important aspects of All Souls' influence on great events in British and world history. Andrew Roberts, Standpoint

Author Information

S. J. D. Green is Professor of Modern History, University of Leeds and Extraordinary Research Fellow, All Souls College Peregrine Horden is Professor of Medieval History, Royal Holloway University of London and Extraordinary Research Fellow All Souls College

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