Ebook: The Rise of English Studies: An Account of the Study of the English Language and Literature from Its Origins to the Making of the Oxford English School

This is not a complete history of English studies, but an attempt to show why and how our language and literature have become subjects of academic study. The process was long and at times fiercely resisted, for the study of English in England began in quite a humble and informal way, as a kind of poor man’s Classics, and more than a hundred years passed before it won recognition as a branch of scholarship in the highest seats of learning. I have illustrated the assumptions and attitudes which gave direction and increasing importance to the subject throughout the nineteenth century: in a complex of social and educational change, the missionaries of culture and the proliferating examination system between them fostered a subject of unprecedented popularity, but its developing possibilities and pleasures were stunted for want of proper academic standards and of trained teachers.