The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics and Geniuses - Softcover

Annan, Noel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226021084 ISBN 13: 9780226021089

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2001

Synopsis

For two hundred years Oxford and Cambridge Universities were home to some of Britain's greatest teachers and intellects, each forming the minds of the passing generations of students and influencing the thinking and practice of university learning throughout the country and the world.

In this entertaining, informative book, Noel Annan is at his incisive best. Displaying his customary mastery of his subject, he describes the great dons in all their glory and eccentricities: who they were, what they were like, why they mattered, and what their legacy is. Written with love and wisdom, the great minds of the past—figures such as John Henry Newman, John Sparrrow, and Isaiah Berlin—are brought alive. In addition, Annan's often quoted article "The Intellectual Aristocracy" is included in this book.

No other work has ever explained so precisely and so intimately the significance of the dons and their important role in shaping higher education—at a time when the nature of learning is ever more the subject of dissension and uncertainty.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"[A] wonderfully gifted and energetic writer. . . . Noel was one of the few figures in English public life known simply by his first name. There was no mistaking him for anyone else."-Jonathan Mirsky, New Yorker

For over two hundred years, Oxford and Cambridge were home to some of Britain's greatest teachers, each forming the minds of students and influencing the practice of university learning everywhere. These teachers-the "dons"-are at the heart of this lovingly crafted and supremely engaging book. Noel Annan, a member of the rank himself, recalls these great minds in all their glorious idiosyncrasy, reminding us who they were, what they were like, and why they mattered.

About the Author:

Noel Annan (1916-2000) was elected provost of King's College, Cambridge, at age thirty-nine and went on to become the first full-time vice-chancellor of the University of London. He is perhaps best known for his bookOur Age and for his often-quoted article "The Intellectual Aristocracy," reprinted here.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0226021084
• ISBN 13: 9780226021089
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 367