The nineteenth century saw the birth of the institution that we recognise as the modern university. At its start, the ancient English universities and their colleges were run by members of the established church, amateur academics teaching a strictly confined curriculum, some using pedagogical methods little changed from the medieval period. By its end, many different subjects taught by professional academics using new methods of teaching, assessment and advancement were achieved through meritocratic means and university opened its doors to new classes of society including women and non-conformists. In this volume of essays the contributors to this volume seek to engage with a number of the major themes in this development as played out in Cambridge. They address the politics of curriculum: the primacy of mathematics, the development of classics in a peculiar Cambridge form and the introduction of history and moral sciences; teaching and tutoring: the rise of the coach and changes in college teaching; the development of the competitive written examination in the university and the colleges and the attitudes of students thereto; the issues associated with providing students with books for their studies and the challenges faced by women and women's colleges in developing their own identities. Contributors: JUNE BARROW-GREEN, MARY BEARD, JOHN R. GIBBINS, PAULA GOULD, ELISABETH LEEDHAM-GREEN, DAVID McKITTERICK, JONATHAN SMITH, GILLIAN SUTHERLAND, CHRISTOPHER STRAY, ANDREW WARWICK, JOHN WILKES.