Simon Kusseff (1967, History) reviews History in the House (2024), by Dr Richard Davenport-Hines.

Richard Davenport-Hines, a former fellow of All Souls has traced the development of the teaching of History at Oxford University, over the last 600 years, through the prism of the House. And anyone who ever wondered why dons at Christ Church are called Students, will discover that the Constitution of the House gave executive authority to powerful men like 17th-century Dean Fell. Dons were called Students to show their subordinate status.

Hines examines the merits for undergraduate learning of: lectures, tutorials, personal reading and peer group conversation over dinner in hall, or a pint. He discusses the personal idiosyncrasies of Christ Church Students: Blake, Harrod, Stuart, Trevor Roper, and Gordon Walker, who may have been known to older Members. He also looks at the evolution of the subject from Literae Humaniores, Ancient History, to more modern Constitutional History based on Stubbs Charters.

Hines records the establishment of the Regius Chair of Modern History, in 1724, and recognises the importance of the subject to train young men to take their place in administering the Institutions of the Establishment, Parliament, Government, Judiciary, Anglican Church and the Ancient Universities.