DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Classics Transformed

Schools, Universities, and Society in England, 1830-1960

Christopher Stray author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:12th Mar '98

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Classics Transformed cover

Runciman Award 1999, Joint Second Prize Winner

The first book to give a general account of the transformation of classics in English schools and universities from being the amateur knowledge of the Victorian gentleman to that of the professional scholar, from an elite social marker to a marginalized academic subject.The first book to give a general account of the transformation of classics in English schools and universities from being the amateur knowledge of the Victorian gentleman to that of the professional scholar, from an elite social marker to a marginalized academic subject. The challenges to the authority of classics in 19th-century England are analysed, as is the wide range of ideological responses by its practitioners. The impact of university reform on the content and organization of classical knowledge is described in detail, with special reference to Cambridge. Chapters are devoted to the effects of state intervention, social snobbery and democracy on the provision of classics in schools, and the dissensions within the bodies set up to defend it. The narrative is carried through to the abolition of Compulsory Latin in 1960 and the absence of classics from the National Curriculum in 1988.

[An] original and pioneering work. * Robert B. Todd, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
A wonderfully rich and deeply researched study * Oswyn Murray, University of Oxford *
A fascinating study, ably conducted * Journal of Hellenic Studies *

  • Winner of Runciman Award 1999, Joint Second Prize Winner.

ISBN: 9780198150138

Dimensions: 223mm x 145mm x 27mm

Weight: 743g

350 pages