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Oxford early modern history MSt advice

I am an American planning on doing an MSt in early modern history next year. Does anyone have any advice on how to adjust to Oxford and how to prepare for or succeed in the course? It would also be great if anyone has any information on the expectations for the classes in the first two terms and how I can prepare. Thanks!!
Read, read, read, read, read, and then read some more. Also: read.

Studying history at Oxford is all about guided self-instruction. Tutors prefer to be the pilot not flying with the student as the handling pilot. The Tutor may only briefly touch the controls if the aircraft encounters turbulence or gets too slow on the approach to land. Socratic method is in abundance - learn by robust debate. Try to be comfortable with irony, and even sarcasm. Withering Oxbridge scorn is a thing.

Historians tend to live in the Upper Reading Room of the Radcliffe Camera, a good place to be, as is the Upper Reading Room in the Old Bodleian. The All Souls Library is also a good place to get some work done.

The default standard amongst your fellow students will be excellence and enthusiasm. Nobody is at Oxford just for the parties and punting (but don't miss out on the parties and punting).

To be an Early Modernist at Oxford, it's a good idea to be familiar with the work of Laurence Stone, Christopher Hill, Hugh Trevor-Roper, and Keith Thomas. To this list I add my tutor Cliff Davies. His mid 60s essay on The Pilgrimage of Grace is still great.

The attached article has lots of interesting stuff about history in Oxford.

https://academic.oup.com/past/article/261/1/259/7246025?login=false

See if you can obtain an invitation to join The Stubbs Society - an inter-collegiate historical discussion group.

You can participate in the life of your college as much or as little as you choose. If you want to interact with the undergraduates, you could apply to be Sub-Dean (the person who is supposed to police the partying). At my college we had a Rhodes Scholar from Princeton to whom Juvenal's words quis custodiet ipsos custodes?* could be applied.

Have fun!

PS: Did I mention reading?


*Who watches the watchmen?
Reply 2
Original post by Stiffy Byng
Read, read, read, read, read, and then read some more. Also: read.
Studying history at Oxford is all about guided self-instruction. Tutors prefer to be the pilot not flying with the student as the handling pilot. The Tutor may only briefly touch the controls if the aircraft encounters turbulence or gets too slow on the approach to land. Socratic method is in abundance - learn by robust debate. Try to be comfortable with irony, and even sarcasm. Withering Oxbridge scorn is a thing.
Historians tend to live in the Upper Reading Room of the Radcliffe Camera, a good place to be, as is the Upper Reading Room in the Old Bodleian. The All Souls Library is also a good place to get some work done.
The default standard amongst your fellow students will be excellence and enthusiasm. Nobody is at Oxford just for the parties and punting (but don't miss out on the parties and punting).
To be an Early Modernist at Oxford, it's a good idea to be familiar with the work of Laurence Stone, Christopher Hill, Hugh Trevor-Roper, and Keith Thomas. To this list I add my tutor Cliff Davies. His mid 60s essay on The Pilgrimage of Grace is still great.
The attached article has lots of interesting stuff about history in Oxford.
https://academic.oup.com/past/article/261/1/259/7246025?login=false
See if you can obtain an invitation to join The Stubbs Society - an inter-collegiate historical discussion group.
You can participate in the life of your college as much or as little as you choose. If you want to interact with the undergraduates, you could apply to be Sub-Dean (the person who is supposed to police the partying). At my college we had a Rhodes Scholar from Princeton to whom Juvenal's words quis custodiet ipsos custodes?* could be applied.
Have fun!
PS: Did I mention reading?
*Who watches the watchmen?

Thank you for all this! You definitely seem to know your way around early modern history at Oxford. Do you have any advice for the Sources and Historiography course or the Theories and Methods course?
Original post by Anonymous
Thank you for all this! You definitely seem to know your way around early modern history at Oxford. Do you have any advice for the Sources and Historiography course or the Theories and Methods course?

Not really, but if you haven't already done so you could maybe read books such as -

E H Carr, What is History?
Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft
Fernand Braudel, On History
Peter Geyl, Debates with Historians

Some of these have modern editions with introductions by later historians, for example Richard Evans wrote an introduction for the latest edition of Carr. There are I think a couple of collections of essays by young historians commenting on Carr. G R Elton wrote a response to Carr but I recall it being a bit grumpy, and very Elton-ish.

Obituaries and biographical notes about leading early modernists might be of some assistance - obits can be found online, and the Dictionary of National Biography is online. Do you have access to JStor?

There is an entertaining recent book on Hugh Trevor-Roper's life, letters, and feuds (many feuds).

Have you done any work on reading early modern handwriting?

Maybe also look up any writings by Sir Keith Thomas (surely the greatest living historian?) on the uses of computerised data.

Have you read Braudel's Mediterranean?

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