A History of Merton College, Oxford [Hardcover]

G. H. Martin (Author), J. R. L Highfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0199201838 | ISBN-13: 978-0199201839

Merton is one of the oldest colleges in Oxford and the model for all the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. It has kept most of its original buildings, including its medieval library. Its history touches the intellectual, social and economic life of the country from the thirteenth century to the present.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`useful volume ... There is much in these accounts to interest economic historians.' Christopher Dyer, University of Birmingham, The Economic History Review, Volume L, No. 3 August 1997

`The college has rich archives, which have been used to good effect by scholars like the late John Fletcher ... this is history seen from the senior common room, concerned above all with the fellows and with the college as a property-owning coropration ... The book is written with impeccable scholarship, spiced with donnish wit, and will no doubt give pleasure to Mertonians' R. D. Anderson, Historical Association

`The college has rich archives, which have been used to good effect by scholars like the late John Fletcher ... this is history seen from the senior common room, concerned above all with the fellows and with the college as a property-owning coropration ... The book is written with impeccable scholarship, spiced with donnish wit, and will no doubt give pleasure to Mertonians' R. D. Anderson, History

`an affectionate and authoritative history of one of the earliest and most distinguished colleges in Oxford' Medium Aevum, Vol LXX

About the Author

Dr. Highfield was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford and he has been a Fellow of Merton College Oxford since 1949. He was the Sub-Warden from 1959 to 1961 and in 1989 he was made an Emeritus Fellow.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 494 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199201838
• ISBN-13: 978-0199201839
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,087,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dull history, August 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of Merton College, Oxford (Hardcover)

The knowledge and learning that Highfield and Martin display in this work is astonishing. Endless facts, figures and details, drawn from a myriad of sources,are crammed into every page. But to what end? There is no sense of why any fact is significant, or how it relates to anything else. There is no attempt to convey any spirit of the ages through which the college has lived, or any sense of the broader movements which shaped and were shaped by the college and its alumni. In short, there is no context. Just a series of facts, strung together into a dull narrative.