Political Rhetoric in the Oxford and Cambridge Unions, 1830–1870

Download or read book Political Rhetoric in the Oxford and Cambridge Unions, 1830–1870 written by Taru Haapala and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-09 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers much-needed insight into the Oxford and Cambridge Unions and the important role they have played in nineteenth-century British political culture. Despite this role, or perhaps for that very reason, the Unions have received very little scholarly attention as to their political activities. This study will focus particularly on debating practices through which their members became knowledgeable of the parliamentary way of doing politics. More significantly, it uses the original Union records as primary research material to show that they also had unique political practices of their own. Presenting a detailed analysis of their debates, the book argues that the Unions should be appreciated as independent political arenas, not mere extensions of Westminster politics.