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Birkbeck traces the 200-year history of Birkbeck, University of London from its founding at a time when social elites deplored the notion of educated working people to the present day. Joanna Bourke writes a lively history of the institution, and how it contributed to the shaping of modern British higher education.
List of contents
- Preface
- 1: Introduction
- Part I: From Mechanics to Graduates
- 2: The Crown and Anchor Tavern
- 3: Education for Whom?
- 4: Useful Knowledge
- 5: The Birkbeck Schools
- 6: Ravenscroft's Birkbeck Bank
- 7: Governing the College
- 8: What is a University?
- Part II: Pleasure and Preferences
- 9: Art and Architecture
- 10: Dancing the Polka
- 11: The New Woman
- 12: Minoritised Communities
- Part III: Student Life
- 13: 'Tea and Kippers'
- 14: Rabbits v. Hares; Or, Social Lives
- 15: Man v. Rabbits
- 16: Students' 'Joy-Night'
- Part IV: War and Politics
- 17: Worlds at War, 1914-1918
- 18: Worlds at War, 1939-1945
- 19: Reds in the Classroom
- 20: Radical Intellectuals
- Part V: Classrooms
- 21: Science in the World
- 22: Disciplines
- 23: Numerical Automation; Or, Computing
- 24: Paranormal Sciences
- 25: Teaching
- Part VI: Battles for Birkbeck
- 26: 'Birkbeck's Unique Mission?'
- 27: Containing the Crisis
- Part VII: Conclusion
- 28: Into the Twenty-First Century
About the author
Joanna Bourke is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is the prize-winning author of books on multiple subjects, including histories of modern warfare, military medicine, psychology and psychiatry, the emotions, and rape. Among others, she is the author of An Intimate History of Killing (1999), Fear: A Cultural History (2005), Rape: A History from 1860 to the Present (2007), What it Means to be Human: Reflections from 1791 to the Present (2011), and The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers. An Intimate History of Killing won the Wolfson Prize and the Fraenkel Prize. She is also a frequent contributor to TV and radio shows, and a regular newspaper correspondent.
Summary
Birkbeck traces the 200-year history of Birkbeck, University of London from its founding at a time when social elites deplored the notion of educated working people to the present day. Joanna Bourke writes a lively history of the institution, and how it contributed to the shaping of modern British higher education.
Additional text
The book succeeds in establishing Birkbeck as unique and with many special achievements. There are illustrations...There is a great deal to cover but reading it will certainly help convince anyone of its contribution to the world. In the chapter on teaching Bourke reminds us that the nature of the student cohorts meant lecturers had to be entertaining as well as knowledgeable. She has extended this approach to this impressive book.
