John Stuart Mill and the Idea of the University
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Author_Helen Small
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forthcoming
Product details
- ISBN 9780197917961
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 19 Nov 2026
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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John Stuart Mill's Inaugural Address as Rector of the University of St Andrews, delivered in 1867, is one of the great statements of the principles that should underpin a liberal higher education. This volume makes Mill's ambition for the university freshly available at a critical juncture in thinking about what higher education is for: its underpinning principles, its scope, and its social purposes.
A new edition of Mill's text is paired with an expanded version of a lecture by Helen Small, 'The Liberal University and Its Enemies', delivered at St Andrews to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Inaugural Address. The lecture examines the intellectual, ethical, and aesthetic basis of Mill's idea of the university, making the case for his relevance today amid significant cultural, economic, and political pressures on the university.
This book is a key contribution to debate about what universities are for. It grapples with the question of what universities should teach, how much they should teach, and why they should be broad in their coverage. The text contains:
-a new edition of the Inaugural Address, with detailed notes and bibliography
-a reconstruction of Mill's original audience, showing why his encouragement to 'keep, at all risks, your minds open' struck a chord with students, professors, and a wider public
-Helen Small's 'The Liberal University and Its Enemies'
Helen Small is Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Her books include The Value of the Humanities (OUP, 2013) and The Long Life (2007) which was winner of the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism, 2008 and the British Academy Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, 2008.
