College-university relationships, the role of examinations, the politics of curriculum: papers amplify the picture of developments in Cambridge during the century. It was in the 19th and early 20th centuries that Cambridge, characterised in the previous century as a place of indolence and complacency, underwent the changes which produced the institutional structures which persist today. Foremost among them was the rise of mathematics as the dominant subject within the university, with the introduction of the Classical Tripos in 1824, and Moral and Natural Sciences Triposes in 1851. Responding to this, Trinity was notable in preparing its students for honours examinations, which came to seem rather like athletics competitions, by working them hard at college examinations. The admission of women and dissenters in the 1860s and 1870s was a majorchange ushered in by the Royal Commission of 1850, which finally brought the colleges out of the middle ages and strengthened the position of the university, at the same time laying the foundations of the new system of lectures and supervisions. Contributors: JUNE BARROW-GREEN, MARY BEARD, JOHN R. GIBBINS, PAULA GOULD, ELISABETH LEEDHAM-GREEN, DAVID McKITTERICK, JONATHAN SMITH, GILLIAN SUTHERLAND, CHRISTOPHER STRAY, ANDREW WARWICK, JOHN WILKES.

What happens to politics in the postmodern condition? The Politics of Postmodernity is a political tour de force that addresses this key contemporary question. Politics in postmodernity is carefully contextualized by relating its specific sphere - the polity - to those of the economic, social, technological and cultural. The authors confront globalization and the notion of postmodernity as disorganized capitalism. They analyze the role of the mass media, the changing ways in which politics is used, the role of the state and the progressive potential of politics in postmodern times. Closing with a postscript on the future of the discipline of political science, this book offers a profound yet highly accessible account of how politics is undergoing a shift from the modern to the postmodern.