University Societies and Clubs in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Britain and Their Role in the Promotion of Research

Abstract

There was a revolution in teaching at Oxford and Cambridge in the nineteenth century as dons clawed back to the colleges teaching for the honours examinations which had formerly been done by coaches in the towns. This was an unquestioned advantage for the construction of civil society because these examinations prepared people for fellowships, livings in the early part of the century, and for places in government and the professions later. However, this revolution of the dons had a distinct disadvantage. It left little room for the promotion of curiosity, originality, and research. The burden of all of this was taken up by university clubs and societies. Old Morality and the Club at Oxford, the Moral Society Club and the Eranus Society at Cambridge were among those university societies which took as their charge the promotion of research. In this way, in highly decentralized universities, these societies served as intellectual lubricants encouraging intellectual change and innovation.