This book studies the development of the modern university system in England from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the Second World War, focusing on the role of the state.

This book is both a concise history of British universities and their place in society over eight centuries, and a penetrating analysis of current university problems and policies as seen in the light of that history. It explains how the modern university system has developed since the Victorian era, and gives special attention to changes in policy since the Second World War, including the effects of the Robbins report, the rise and fall of the binary system, the impact of the Thatcher era, and the financial crises which have beset universities in recent years. A final chapter on the past and the present shows the continuing relevance of the ideals inherited from the past, and makes an important contribution to current controversies by identifying a distinctively British university model and discussing the historical relationship of state and market.

This book considers a crucial moment in the development of English higher education, and also provides a new and comprehensive history of the early decades of Durham University. During the Age of Reform innovative ideas about the role and purpose of a university were moving at an unprecedented pace. Proposals for new institutions in all parts of the country were developing quickly and resulted in the foundation of Durham University, London University (later re-styled University College, London), and King’s College, London. While normally overshadowed by the London institutions, this book demonstrates not only that Durham attempted to produce a far broader institution than any historian has given its founders credit for, but that a remarkable attempt at a third-way in English higher education has been neglected. Matthew Andrews therefore not only provides the first fully researched account of this important national institution since 1932, but also carefully situates Durham in its contemporary context, and alongside the two other most prominent emerging institutions of that time.

Now in its second edition, Bourgeois Europe, 1850–1914 is a general history of Europe from the middle of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War, a successor to Revolutionary Europe: 1780–1850, also available from Routledge. The book offers wide geographic coverage of the European continent, from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean and from the Atlantic to the Urals. Topical coverage is equally broad, including major trends and events in international relations and domestic politics, in social and gender structures, in the economy, and in the natural and social sciences, the humanities, religion and the arts. For this second edition, the text has been completely revised, the latest directions in historical research considered, the further reading brought up to date and special attention has been paid to Europe’s global interactions with the rest of the world and the structures and norms of gender relations. Tables, charts, maps and other explanatory features help students explore further in the areas that interest them. Written in sprightly, jargon-free clear prose, the book is ideal for use as a text in secondary school or university courses, as well as for general readers wishing to gain an overview of a crucial era of modern European history.

This issue of History of Universities, Volume XXXI / 1, contains the customary mix of learned articles and book reviews which makes this publication such an indispensable tool for the historian of higher education. The volume is, as always, a lively combination of original research and invaluable reference material.

This innovative survey of European history from the middle of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War tells the story of an era of outward tranquillity that was also a period of economic growth, social transformation, political contention and scientific, and artistic innovation. During these years, the foundations of our present urban-industrial society were laid, the five Great Powers vied in peaceful and violent fashion for dominance in Europe and throughout the world, and the darker forces that were to dominate the twentieth century – violent nationalism, totalitarianism, racism, ethnic cleansing – began to make themselves felt. Jonathan Sperber sets out developments in this period across the entire European continent, from the Atlantic to the Urals, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. To help students of European history grasp the main dynamics of the period, he divides the book into three overlapping sections covering the periods from 1850-75, 1871-95 and 1890-1914. In each period he identifies developments and tendencies that were common in varying degrees to the whole of Europe, while also pointing the unique qualities of specific regions and individual countries. Throughout, his argument is supported by illustrative material: tables, charts, case studies and other explanatory features, and there is a detailed bibliography to help students to explore further in those areas that interest them.

This book offers a spatial history of the decades in which women entered the universities as students for the first time. Through focusing on several different types of spaces – such as learning spaces, leisure spaces, and commuting spaces – it argues that the nuances and realities of everyday life for both men and women students during this period can be found in the physical environments in which this education took place, as declaring women eligible for admittance and degrees did not automatically usher in coeducation on equal terms. It posits that the intersection of gender and space played an integral role in shaping the physical and social landscape of higher education in England and Wales in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, whether explicitly – as epitomised by the building of single-sex colleges – or implicitly, through assumed behavioural norms and practices.