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

ISBN-13: 9783319817309 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 345 str.

Taru Haapala

Opis

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.

Spis treści

1. The ‘combative element’: Debate and rhetorical uses of parliamentary procedure in the Cambridge and Oxford Union Societies, c. 1832―1867.- 2. The Union Societies in the British political culture: The formation of a parliamentary culture of debate.- 3. Debate at the core of British parliamentary culture.- 4. The politics of agenda in the Union Societies.- 5. The politics of debate in the Union Societies.- 6. Conclusion: Deliberative rhetoric in parliamentary-style assemblies.- Appendices: Lists of debate topics in Union Societies, 1830―1870.

O autorze

Taru Haapala is Research Fellow in Political Science at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.