The intertwined stories of the great English ''Varsity'' universities have many colourful aspects in common, yet each also boasts elements of true distinctiveness. So while the histories of Oxford and Cambridge are both characterised by seething town and gown rivalries, doctrinal conflicts and heretical outbursts, shifts of political and religious allegiance and gripping stories of individual heroism and defiance, they are also narratives of difference and distinctiveness. G.R. Evans explores the remarkable and unique contribution that Cambridge University has made to society and culture, both in Britain and right across the globe, and will subsequently publish her history of Oxford University to complete a major new history of the two universities. Ranging across 800 years of vivid history, packed with incident, Evans here explores great thinkers such as John Duns Scotus - the 13th century Franciscan Friar who gave his name his name to ''dunces'' - and celebrates the extraordinary molecular breakthroughs of Watson and Crick in the 20th century.
Moving from the radical new thinking of the Cambridge Platonists and the brilliant scientific discoveries of Isaac Newton to the discovery of the Double Helix and the notorious ''Garden House Hotel Riot'' of 1970, the book is published to co-incide with the 800th anniversary of the University''s foundation in 1209. The first short history of its kind, it will be a lasting and treasured resource for all Cambridge alumni/ae.