A History of the University of Cambridge: Volume 4, 1870–1990: (Series Number 4 History of the University of Cambridge)

This is the fourth volume of A History of the University of Cambridge and explores the extraordinary growth in size and academic stature of the University between 1870 and 1990. Though the University has made great advances since the 1870s, when it was viewed as a provincial seminary, it is also the home of tradition: a federation of colleges, one over 700 years old, one of the 1970s. This book seeks to penetrate the nature of the colleges and of the federation; and to show the way in which university faculties and departments have come to vie with the colleges for this predominant role. It attempts to unravel a fascinating institutional story of the society of the University and its place in the world. It explores in depth the themes of religion and learning, and of the entry of women into a once male environment. There are portraits of seminal and characteristic figures of the Cambridge scene, and there is a sketch - inevitably selective but wide-ranging - of many disciplines, an extensive study in intellectual and academic history.

Table of Contents:
List of illustrations; Preface; Abbreviations; 1. Prologue; 2. The university and the colleges; 3. The second Royal Commission and university reform, 1872–1914; 4. Religion, 1870–1914; 5. Theology; 6. The natural sciences; 7. Classics, law and history; 8. The society; 9. Women, 1868–1948; 10. The Great War, 1914–19; 11. Sir Hugh Anderson, the Asquith Commission and its sequel; 12. The University Library; 13. The dons' religion in twentieth-century Cambridge; 14. Religion and learning: C. H. Dodd and David Knowles; 15. A diversity of disciplines; 16. The Second World War; 17. The university and the world, 1945–90: a cosmopolitan society; 18. The new colleges; 19. Epilogue; Appendix 1. Fellows and undergraduates of the men's colleges, 1869–1919; Appendix 2. Student numbers by college, 1990–1; Appendix 3. College incomes, c.1926; Appendix 4. A note on schools; Appendix 5. Profession and status of Cambridge students; Bibliographical references; Index.

Review :
This book, and its companion volumes, is of much interest not only to the historian but also to any graduate of Cambridge who is curious about its evolution or who views with concern the current tug of war between the government and the two oldest universities.' Cambridge: The Magazine of the Cambridge Society