Oxford History Students and Applicants

Which college are you at? I'm at St Hugh's. Thus far the Medieval History books have been hard but fun purely because it's something completely new. Although I must say that the struggle for mastery, while entertaining and quite accessible, is a bit daunting purely because of its length . . . Who did you have for Brit 2? I thought I'd get Dr Garnett but I've been told he's on sabbatical this year

I'm at Catz, but I had Dr. Tyerman at Hertford - apparently a lot of brit 2 is taught out of college. Tyerman was alright, but he could be a bit pompous and a lot of his tutes involved him telling us stuff, rather than debating with us, which I've since learned is not the best method. Still, he taught us the basics. SFM is actually pretty standard in length, better get used to it...

Nooooo! I clearly need to work on my speed reading. And I quite fancy being taught out of college actually, I like the idea of seeing all the other colleges, not just being confined to mine (not that I don't love Hugh's). But in Freshers week it says we meet with our tutors so will I have to leave college to do that and find my way to Hertford or something? I have a tendancy to get lost

..I like the idea of seeing all the other colleges, not just being confined to mine (not that I don't love Hugh's). But in Freshers week it says we meet with our tutors so will I have to leave college to do that and find my way to Hertford or something? I have a tendancy to get lost

I gather that a number of colleges send their BHII/III to Dr. Lacey at Mansfield. We're rather well hidden so let me know if you end up there and need directions

Thanks and thank you Carna too I feel much better about navigating my way to tutorials (on time) now, it'll be nice to see other colleges.

No problem! Happy to help.

So, who's reading for the Foreign Text paper?

I taking far too long over Tocqueville, but at least I'm being thorough! How is everyone else finding it? I may have to resort to speedily reading the translation soon.

De Fos I think you know I'm tocqueville already? But if not then hello I'm Billie and I'm doing Tocqueville too I finished it last Thursday (with a little help from the English translation when I got stuck admittedly but mostly in french) and have now moved onto The Struggle For Mastery for Brit 2 (English History books now seem such a gift, imagine, only having to read a paragraph once to understand it!)

I started Tocqueville before Results Day so it took me a while but every page or two I stopped to make a few notes on what I'd learnt/disagreed with. I found it very hard so be reassured I'm pretty sure it's meant to seem difficult and a bit daunting, I mean it's Oxford and we have all this term to get to grips with the text properly (although I read last year's examiner's reports for History and apparently tons of students did disappointingly in the Tocqueville paper . . . which is less reassuring). I've only met one other person doing Tocqueville and I met her on facebook so I don't know if she's on tsr. But there must be more of us. Which bit of Tocqueville are you at? I must say some bits (once I'd understood them) were really lovely and poetic. Some bits were just intimidating and frustrating.

Yes! I remember the messages you sent me about this a while ago. It really is a relief to get onto English history afterwards.

Well I'm reading about administrative centralisation at the moment, how it was (as with everything in this book) actually an act of the Ancien Régime and not actually the revolution. I think I saw a couple of others picking it on the Magdalen Facebook page, I'd imagine it's quite a popular foreign text to take.

I agree that some of the language is quite poetic, his likening France to a river before and after the revolution is rather nice - "it's merely the same water between different river banks". I've a nice grasp of his arguments now, though some of his digressions are so dull! Especially about farming techniques.

Historians seem to be so fond of digressing from their interesting main arguments/narrative to tediously describe agricultural techniques and trends. I think they do it just to make life for students a little bit dull.

I, personally, love reading about farming techniques.

But there must be more of us.

Hi, I'm doing it too! I'm Alice and I'm going to Hertford up to l2c4...quite a bit to go but it is interesting!

Hi, sorry to barge in on this but I'm also doing history at Hertford

Could a current student advise, based on the experience of previous years, at what point the Michaelmas 2011 lecture list is likely to be available here:

http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/lecturelist/index.htm

Will it be published before Fresher's week?

Many thanks

I'm a 2nd year historian at Hertford, so if you have any questions, fire away

Know Ben Slater? He's a cousin of mine, reading history, starting on his third year soon.