University Politics: F. M. Cornford's Cambridge and his Advice to the Young Academic Politician

This entertaining new account of Cambridge in the later nineteenth century contains the complete text of F.M. Cornford's famous satire of 1908 on University politics, Microcosmographia Academica, together with a full account of the controversies that gave rise to it. Cambridge during that period was being subjected to pressure for reform from within and outside the University, forcing it to radical social and academic change, above all by extending and changing the curriculum and by admitting women. These matters provoked fierce debates and provided a rich context for Cornford's pamphlet.