Oxbridge Men: British Masculinity and the Undergraduate Experience, 1850-1920

The mythic status of the Oxbridge man at the height of the British Empire
continues to persist in depictions of this small, elite world as an ideal of
athleticism, intellectualism, tradition, and ritual. In his investigation of the
origins of this myth, Paul R. Deslandes explores the everyday life of undergraduates
at Oxford and Cambridge to examine how they experienced manhood. He considers
phenomena such as the dynamics of the junior common room, the competition of exams,
and the social and athletic obligations of intercollegiate boat races to show how
rituals, activities, relationships, and discourses all contributed to gender
formation. Casting light on the lived experience of undergraduates, Oxbridge Men
shows how an influential brand of British manliness was embraced, altered, and
occasionally rejected as these students grew from boys into men.