Enlightened Oxford: The University and the Cultural and Political Life of Eighteenth-Century Britain and Beyond

Enlightened Oxford explores the connections between the University of Oxford, its members, and the world during the Williamite Revolution and the first decade of the nineteenth century. It examines the University's role in Church and state, its place in an intellectual world, and its capacity for adaptation and intellectual and political pluralism.

Format: Hardback
Length: 848 pages
Publication date: 19 October 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Enlightened Oxford aims to discern, establish, and clarify the multiplicity of connections between the University of Oxford, its members, and the world outside. It seeks to offer readers a fresh, contextualized sense of the University's role in the state, society, and in relation to other institutions between the Williamite Revolution and the first decade of the nineteenth century, a period loosely describable (though not without much qualification) as England's ancien regime.

Nigel Aston delves into the question of Oxford's place within the broader social and cultural landscape of the time. He explores the University's significance in Church and state, as well as its role as an institution that upheld religious entitlement in an ever-shifting intellectual world where national and confessional boundaries were under scrutiny. Enlightened Oxford is less an inside history than a consideration of an institutional presence and its place in the life of the country and further afield.

While acknowledging the degree of corporate inertia to be found in the University, Aston recognizes that there was internal scope for members so inclined to be creative in their teaching, open new research lines, and be unapologetic Whigs rather than unrepentant Tories. For if Oxford was a seat of learning rooted in its past and with an increasing antiquarian awareness of its inheritance, yet it had a surprising capacity for adaptation, a scope for intellectual and political pluralism that was not incompatible with enlightened values.

Enlightened Oxford offers a valuable perspective on the University of Oxford during a crucial period of its history. By examining the complex relationships between the University, its members, and the broader world, it sheds light on the University's role in shaping the intellectual, political, and social landscape of England and beyond. Through its exploration of the University's historical context, its internal dynamics, and its capacity for adaptation, Aston provides a rich and nuanced understanding of Oxford's place in the history of higher education and intellectual life.

Weight: 1512g
Dimension: 165 x 244 x 47 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780199246830