ISBN : 9780199593705
All Souls College, Oxford, has been both widely praised and roundly abused for its fellows' non-academic pursuits. How was it that members of the college so often held dual citizenship in the worlds of learning and public affairs? Why, instead of becoming teaching 'dons', could they be found in government and politics, in law, diplomacy, and running the empire, in formulating foreign policy (including, supposedly, 'appeasement' of Hitler), in banking, journalism, and the 'republic of letters'? Part of the answer lies in the nature of the foundation. Chichele's medieval college was always meant to be a training ground for careers in Church and government. But the origins of the modern phenomenon of 'prize fellows' active in a wider world beyond Oxford lies in the history of the College during the decades around 1900, and in its 'second foundation' by the Warden, Sir William Anson. The studies collected in this volume explore the context, significance, and legacy of Anson's wardenship. They trace the activities of 'prize' and other fellows, both individually and in groups, in settings that range geographically from London to the capitals of empire and commonwealth in Africa, India, and Australia, and chronologically from the years preceding the First World War to the Suez crisis.
Introduction: Anson's Legacy - All Souls and the Wider World c. 1850-1950
1. Prizes, Fellowship, and Open Competition in All Souls, c. 1850-1950
2. 'Government by Mallardry': The Golden Age of the Prize Fellows, c. 1875-1925
3. Simon: A Lawyer in Politics
4. Government by a Mallardian: On the Possibility of Public Service in the Political Thought of R. H. Brand
5. Have Brain Will Travel: W.H. Hancock and the Idea of Public Service
6. All Souls and 'The Round Table'
7. All Souls and the War of the Professors
8. All Souls and India: The 1920s
9. All Souls and India: The 1930s and After
10. Appeasers and Anti-Appeasers: All Souls and the International Crisis of the 1930s
11. Leo Amery and the Post-War World, 1945-55
12. All Souls and Suez
13. G.M. Young: The Last Victorian?