LSE: A History of the London School of Economics and Political Science 1895-1995

Dahrendorf, Ralf

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0198202407 ISBN 13: 9780198202400

Casa editrice: Clarendon Press, 1995

The London School of Economics and Political Science ― the LSE ― is one of the most famous academic institutions in the world. This history provides a lively account of the fist century of a university which, form its beginnings has captured not only the minds of social scientists but also the imagination of a wider public. It is the biography of an institution written by an author who was closely involved as a student and later as Director of the School and who remains deeply attached to it. The book places the School in the context of the drama of the twentieth century and it does so through a mirror, the mirror of the social sciences.

Lord Dahrendorf traces the story of the LSE from its `invention' by Beatrice and Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw, and Graham Wallas as a breakfast in August 1894, through its foundation in 1895, the travails of its early years, the triumphs of the Beveridge years between the wars, the great expansion of the post-war period, and the changing moods of the succeeding decades, including the `troubles' of 1968. The individuals and the events of the LSE's century of existence have been memorable, yet the School has always been more than the sum of its parts. Its base was London, and its home the world.

Recensione:

a warm, generous, affectionate, and personal history of LSE (Albion)

t is scrupulously researched, a jungle book of scrumptiously private inside information... - I found LSE compelling reading and often emotionally stirring. (Daily Telegraph)

Lord Dahrendorf's history is worthy of its subject and does justice to a great international institution...very readable volume (Times Higher Education Supplement)

His enthusasm for the institution is obvious in this very enjoyable centenary history, but he is always judicious - for example, in his excellent account of "the troubles" in the mid-60's...It has had its ups and downs and Dahrendorf gives a clear chronological account of them. (Financial Times)

will be of special interest to political scientists ... Dahrendorf well captures the special spirit of LSE ... Particularly for those of us who were at LSE as students or as teachers, this centenary volume will be cherished as a reminder of an institution that commands peculiar loyalties from those associated with it.

There is an impressive quantity of scholarship; a truly vast number of relevant facts amassed. There is no padding; the interesting facts jostle each other, all have a legitimate claim on the available space; (The Times Literary Supplement)

Ralf Dahrendorf strikes gold in his centenary history of the London School of Economics...a compelling story of the building of a 20th-century urban intellectual community. (The Observer)

he epitomises the LSE's internationalism, its prodigious intellectual appetite, its quizzical social democracy, its quest for power through knowledge. He tells an often gripping tale with high intelligence, panache and generosity. (Sunday Telegraph)

the author, having been both student and Director of the School is uniquely qualified to write its history ... There is an impressive quantity of scholarship: A truly vast number of relevant facts amassed. There is no padding; the interesting facts jostle each other, all have a legitimate claim in the available space. (The Hindu)

splendidly readable history of the school (New Statesman and Society)

L'autore:

Ralf Dahrendorf (Lord Dahrendorf) is a former Director of the LSE and now Warden of St Antony's College, Oxford. He is the author of over 40 books, including Class and Conflict in Industrial Society (1959), and The Modern Social Conflict (1988)