Knowledge and Power: The Parliamentary Representation of Universities in Britain and the Empire

Knowledge and Power presents the first comprehensive account of how universities held seats in Britain′s Parliament between the 17th and 20th centuries and how the idea of university representation spread throughout the British Empire. Chapters reveal the ways that the character, functions, and political significance of this little–examined institution altered over time in response to changing circumstances in both education and government. Topics explored include the role of university constituencies in the political system, and how it was widely debated in relation to a host of fundamental constitutional concerns, including the bases of representation, the extent of political inclusion, religious pluralism, and women s suffrage. Questions of university representation also converged with processes of colonial self–government, mechanisms of imperial rule, and the Indian independence movement. Knowledge and Power reveals how university representation – viewed by its opponents as an inequitable constitutional relic and by it supporters as a means of leavening politics with learning – played an illuminating if often paradoxical role in Britain′s and the Empire′s political modernization.

Table of Tables

Acknowledgments

Note on Terminology

Introduction       

1. University Representation in the 17th and 18th Centuries            

2. The Rise and Fall of the University Franchise    

3. Debating University Representation     

4. University Representatives       

5. University Representation in India        

6. Imperial Comparisons               

Conclusion         

Appendices

1. A Timeline of University Representation             

2. Representation of Universities in the English, Irish and United Kingdom Parliaments (by Decade), 1603–1950         

3. University Representatives in the Parliaments of England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, 1603–1950              

4. Burgesses for the University of Dublin (Trinity College) in the Irish House of Commons, 1613–1800                  

5. Members for the College of William and Mary in the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1700–76       

6. Allocation of Seats under the Government of India Act, 1935, for the Lower House in Each Provincial Legislature            

7. University Members in Indian Provincial Legislative Councils, 1893–1955            

Bibliography      

Index    

Joseph S. Meisel is the Deputy Provost at Brown University. He was previously a program officer for the humanities at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He is author of Public Speech and the Culture of Public Life in the Age of Gladstone (2001) and co–author of the forthcoming Harry Furniss The Humours of Parliament : A View of Late Victorian Political Culture.

While forms of textual remediation remain beyond the scope of her study, Bernstein offers brilliant new readings that should have a powerful impact on studies of Victorian women s literary history and prompts us to reconsider old materials and spaces in light of the new archival turn.   (Knowledge & Power, Autumn 2014)