The Cambridge Apostles, 1820–1914
Liberalism, Imagination, and Friendship in British Intellectual and Professional Life

A full-scale study of the world's most famous secret society, the Cambridge 'Apostles'.

W. C. Lubenow (Author)

9780521037280, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 May 2007

476 pages, 33 b/w illus.
23.4 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.661 kg

'This is a scholarly book, deep and learned, tightly focused but not without consideration of the wider context in which it sits.' Cambridge

This book offers a highly engaging history of the world's most famous secret society, the Cambridge 'Apostles', based upon the lives, careers and correspondence of the 255 Apostles elected to the Cambridge Conversazione Society between 1820 and 1914. It examines the way in which the Apostles recruited their membership, the Society's discussions and its intellectual preoccupations. From its pages emerge such figures as F. D. Maurice, John Sterling, John Mitchell Kemble, Richard Trench, Fenton Hort, James Clerk Maxwell, Henry Sidgwick, Lytton Strachey, E. M. Forster, and John Maynard Keynes. The careers of these and many other leading Apostles are traced, through parliament, government, letters, and in public school and university reform. The book also makes an important contribution in discussing the role of liberalism, imagination and friendship at the intersection of the life of learning and public life. This is a major contribution to the intellectual and social history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and to the history of the University of Cambridge. It demonstrates in impressive depth just how and why the Apostles forged original themes in modern intellectual life.

List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: the Apostles and intellectual and professional life
1. The Cambridge Conversazione Society and the formation of friendship
2. The social background, education and careers of the Cambridge Apostles
3. The Apostles and the great world: parliament, government, the civil service and the law
4. The Apostles and the great world: journalism, letters and clubs
5. The Apostles and learning: the public schools
6. The Apostles and learning: the universities
7. The Apostles, religion and the crisis of belief
Conclusion
Appendix: the Cambridge Apostles: a biographical directory
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]