Great universities: Oxford and Cambridge.
8.3.1. Oxford University is oldest institution of higher learning in the English-speaking world. The university is located in Oxford, England. The town of Oxford was already an important center of learning by the end of the 12th century. Teachers from mainland Europe and other scholars settled there, and lectures are known to have been delivered by as early as 1117.
8.3.2. There are 39 colleges within the university, each with its own internal structure and activities. The university's formal head is the chancellor, usually a distinguished politician, elected for life by the members of Convocation. Formal instruction is available for undergraduates in the form of lectures. In addition, each undergraduate works with a college tutor, who is responsible for overseeing the student's academic progress. Since 1902, students from the Commonwealth of Nations countries and from certain other overseas countries have been able to study at Oxford under Rhodes Scholarships, established by the British colonial statesman Cecil John Rhodes.
8.3.3. The main university library, the Bodleian, was built as an extension to the university's medieval library. Its collections were established in 1602 by the English scholar and diplomat Sir Thomas Bodley, who gave the university a collection of books he had purchased in Europe. Among several university museums is the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. The first public museum in Great Britain, it was founded by the English antiquary Elias Ashmole and was opened in 1683. Books were first printed for the university in 1478, soon after William Caxton printed the first book in England. Today the Oxford University Press annually publishes hundreds of distinguished books of scholarly and general interest, including the renowned Oxford English Dictionary.
8.3.4. Cambridge Universityis the second oldest university in Great Britain after the University of Oxford. The University of Cambridge is a system of faculties, departments, and 31 independent colleges. The University of Cambridge figured prominently in the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. The Dutch scholar Erasmus was a professor of Greek and divinity at Cambridge from 1511 to 1514 and translated the New Testament from Greek into Latin there; the religious reformers William Tyndale, Hugh Latimer, and Thomas Cranmer were educated at Cambridge. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I Cambridge became a stronghold of Puritanism. In the 17th century Sir Isaac Newton was faculty member here. English clergyman John Harvard, for whom Harvard University was named, was a graduate of Cambridge, as were the statesman Oliver Cromwell, the most important leader of the English Revolution (1640-1660); the poet John Milton; the scientist Charles Darwin, who developed the evolutionary theory of natural selection. Charles, Prince of Wales studied at Trinity College and received a degree in June 1970.
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Other establishments of note.
8.4.1. An important feature of British education is the existence of private boarding schools – independent schools (previously called public schools), such as Eton College, Harrow School, Rugby School, and Winchester School. These famous private schools are theoretically open to the public, but in reality are attended by those who can afford the fees. Many of Britain’s leaders have attended these private schools, which cater to the wealthy and influential but also offer some scholarships to gifted poorer children. Only a small percentage of the population can attend these ancient and highly prestigious schools. A variety of other schools are also private, including kindergartens, day schools, and newer boarding schools. Only 7 percent of British students attend private school.
8.4.2. Eton College was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. The curriculum, almost purely classical until the middle of the 19th century, consists predominantly of modern subjects, although students continue to study the classics. Correspondingly, the college facilities have been modernized and include science laboratories, language laboratories, and closed-circuit television systems. Preparation is provided for British army examinations, and numerous scholarships to universities are available. The school has had many distinguished graduates, including the British general and statesman Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington; the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; and the British statesman William Ewart Gladstone.
8.4.3. Harrow School, institution of secondary and higher education, is also very old. The late medieval school was started in 1572 by John Lyon, a prosperous yeoman, under a charter granted by Elizabeth I. In 1591 Lyon drew up the statutes of the institution, providing for the free education of 40 boys of the Harrow parish, and left two-thirds of his fortune to the school when he died. The original course of instruction was exclusively classical, but studies are now offered in agriculture, architecture, art, classics, economics, geography, history, mathematics, modern languages, music, science, and technology. Sir Winston Churchill graduated from the Harrow School.
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8.4.4. Rugby School was founded in 1567 as a free school for boys of the area under the terms of the will of a wealthy London grocer. The most famous headmaster was the British educator Thomas Arnold who was in charge of the school from 1828 to 1842. He introduced a program of physical, moral, and religious discipline, designed to train the character as well as the mind of the student. Under his leadership Rugby became one of the greatest of English private schools. The Rugby School has been at the forefront of science education in Great Britain throughout the 20th century. The school also offers courses in art history, design, politics, and Russian history. Girls were first admitted in 1976 and in 1993 the school initiated programs that would move it toward full coeducation. The school is familiarly known also as the place of origin (1823) of Rugby football.
LECTURE 09
SOCIAL LIFE IN THE UK
Social life.
9.1.1. In the past, Britain used to be a class society. Yet some class distinctions have become blurred in Britain. Today only a small number of people are considered upper class, and their former influence in conservative politics has been largely taken over by wealthy people in the middle class. Liberal and left-wing politics have middle-class leadership as well. The British economy has created many semiprofessional and technical jobs, so it is no longer easy to tell which jobs are middle class and which are working class. Moreover, growing national affluence has brought greater social mobility between the working class and the middle class. Although prosperity may move working-class into the middle class, no amount of wealth will guarantee upper-class status, which is determined by land and family.
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9.1.2. The increasingly widespread distribution of capital has also blurred class lines, as more money in the form of stocks, bonds, property, and bank accounts is in more hands. Many middle-class employees and workers have become owners of capital, particularly in the form of pension plans. There is less inequality in wealth, due to the spread of home ownership, and government programs have been created to help equalize access to health services and education.
9.1.3. There have been many changes in traditional values as well. Family structure has changed. Married couples have an average of two children, a figure that has not changed since World War II. However, marriage rates fell in the 1980s, and there has been a significant shift from formal marriage to stable cohabitation. In the mid-1990s one-third of births were to parents who were not formally married. As the percentage of women in Britain’s workforce has risen, women have struggled for equal pay for equal work, a goal as yet unachieved. The state passed an Equal Pay Act that has been aggressively applied to civil service, teaching, and local government jobs. The Sex Discrimination Act made discrimination unlawful between men and women in employment, education, training, housing, facilities, and services. Over 100 women were elected to the House of Commons out of a total 659 members.
9.1.4. The United Kingdom is generally a prosperous, well-educated, and tolerant society, and ethnic differences have sparked relatively little violence and hostility. Even so, black and Asian populations tend to cluster in certain urban neighborhoods, where economic and social disadvantages have become pronounced. Integration of these diverse ethnic groups into the workforce, as well as socialization into the broader society, including intermarriage, has been remarkably smooth. Percentages of employment for various ethnic minorities and whites are generally similar. Many individuals from ethnic minorities hold managerial and professional positions, and several sit in Parliament.
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Social issues.
9.2.1. Perhaps the worst feature of the current class situation in Britain is the existence of a permanent underclass. These people are on the dole, that is, on welfare, permanently. They subsist in poor surroundings with little hope that they or their children, who usually drop out of school, will break out of the cycle of poverty. Another social problem, somewhat related to this underclass, has been the rise in crime and violence. Vandalism and rowdiness by youths are problems in British society, and the brutality of British football (soccer) fans has gained international notoriety. The degree to which racism is a problem in Britain is a source of debate. Some say it is a hidden tradition and others believe that decency and fair play prevail.
9.2.2. Most British people attribute their origins to the early invaders, calling themselves English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, or Ulsterites. The remaining share of the population are minorities who arrived, for the most part, in the decades following the end of World War II. These minorities—Chinese, Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Africans, and Caribbean people of African ancestry—came to Britain in substantial numbers after 1945. Immigration from the South Asian subcontinent (India and Pakistan) stabilized in the 1990s, but immigration from African countries continued to rise. These newer ethnic groups tend to live in the more urban and industrial areas of England, especially in London, Birmingham, and Leeds. It is estimated that 60 percent of black Britons live in the London area, along with 41 percent of the Asian Indian population.
9.2.3. British houses are made with concrete blocks or concrete-like building materials because the dampness of the climate causes wood to rot. In general, British people are much more tolerant of the damp chill and less tolerant of heat over 26°C (80°F). Clothes reflect the climate, and woolen goods, particularly tweeds, are famous products. British cooking has a reputation for overcooked vegetables and unhealthy fried foods. This situation has improved considerably in recent years, and foreign foods, particularly those from southern Europe and Asia, have become popular.
9.2.4. The British tend to socialize by joining clubs and hobby groups. The local public house, or pub, serves alcoholic beverages and is an important gathering place, particularly for the working class. Although British society is overwhelmingly urban and suburban, links with its agricultural past are reflected in the popularity of gardening. Politeness is a hallmark of British society, and shouting is regarded as rude. People are often reserved and do not want to show emotion in public, although this appears to be changing. Sports are important, and an estimated 29 million people participate in a variety of sports. Many more are spectators of professional sports. Fishing is popular, but the few people who take up hunting come under considerable criticism for doing so. Reading, music, culture, and the arts are pursued zealously by countless millions.
Youth life.
9.3.1. Youth and youth movement are important factors in the life of Britain. Hundreds of voluntary youth groups and organizations play an active role in the moral and physical nurture of young people in Britain. There are thousands of Youth Clubswhich are part of a highly organized national network. These can provide good all-round facilities for games, music, project development and other activities and encourage young people to take part in dramatic productions, residential visits, community work or environmental projects.
9.3.2.The Scout Association, founded in Britain by Lord Robert Baden-Powell about a century ago (1908), is still popular. Girls were admitted to the Scouts for the first time in 1990. Boys and girls scouts organize outdoor activities such as camping and social responsibility. Scouts wear uniforms. Their motto is "Be prepared". Young Farmers' Clubsembrace thousands of members in country areas. The clubs visit farms and research stations and enjoy social meetings as well. Most of them are directly involved in community activities such as programs to help in the protection of the local environment. Youth organization Greenpeace deals with most urgent ecological problems of today's world. It protests against nuclear weapon tests, water and soil pollution, etc. Religious organizationsare the largest voluntary sector provider of accommodation training for young people, particularly those who are homeless, unemployed or otherwise disadvantaged.
9.3.3. The “youthful” image of Britain was consolidated in 1994 when the Labour Party elected Tony Blair, a 41-year-old lawyer, as its leader. Blair became the youngest person ever to lead the Labour Party, and he secured landslide victories for his party in the 1997 and 2001 general elections. He insisted that his party abandon its nearly century-old commitment to creating a socialist state. Blair benefited immediately from a series of scandals involving Conservative ministers and Members of Parliament, as well as the public spectacle surrounding Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
9.3.4. In the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, Blair proclaimed that the United Kingdom would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with the United States in the effort to root out global terrorism. More than 100 British citizens were among the thousands of people who died in the attacks. Blair began an intensive round of diplomatic negotiations that took him to European capitals and to a host of Muslim countries to build international support for action against the terrorists. The United Kingdom sent British forces to participate in the assault on Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, which was accused of harboring terrorists. Blair also offered to contribute British military forces to the attack on Iraq. In March 2003 British forces joined the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, despite a failure to secure a UN resolution explicitly sanctioning the action.
Communications and travel.
9.4.1. Communication systems were first established by commercial concerns and merchants who needed to exchange information about trade routes and goods. The ruling aristocracy used trusted messengers to carry confidential or sensitive information from capital to capital or kingdom to kingdom, but they were typically soldiers or servants. Over time, these arrangements evolved into government-operated systems for any citizen or subject to post messages to any other, financed by charging users a tax or fee for postage (verified by postage stamps). In England, the Post Office was founded in 1635 and is noted in history for issuing the famous Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive stamp, in 1840.
9.4.2. British fleet has always played an important role in the country’s development. It was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I that support for naval exploration increased dramatically. In 1580 Sir Francis Drake became the first Englishman to sail around the world. Overseas commercial and trade interests were also established in the form of the English East India Company in 1600. English colonization in the Americas began with the attempted settlement of Roanoke Island off the North American coast in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh. This settlement did not survive. Later, British ships began to carry settlers to every part of the world. British fleet consolidated Britain’s economic and military power in later centuries.
9.4.3. Historically, railroads played a very important role in the history of the country. The Victorian era was also known as the Railway Age. The world’s first public railway was the Stockton and Darlington, which opened in 1825. It was built by George Stephenson. One of the latest large-scale construction projects is the Channel Tunnel that links England with France and runs underground beneath the relatively shallow English Channel. It was finished in 1994 and cost more than $16 billion to complete, twice its estimated budget. It has enormous symbolic importance as an unbroken link between Britain and the Continent.
9.4.4. The automobile is a chief means of transportation in the modern world. It is interesting to know that it was English physicist Sir Isaac Newton who, among other things, proposed a steam carriage. In 1794, Robert Street of England filed a patent that summarized how an internal-combustion engine might work. The first modern cars appeared in Germany, and the real revolution in car-making took place in the USA in the early XX century.
Along with other industries, the airlines were nationalized after World War II, but they were privatized in the late 1980s. British Airways is one of the world’s leading airlines and operates the world’s largest network of international scheduled services. London’s main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, are among the world’s busiest centers for international travel. There are another 146 licensed civil airfields in Britain.
LECTURE 10
THE MASS MEDIA IN THE UK
The mass media.
10.1.1. Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience. It was coined in the 1920s (with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines), although mass media was present centuries before the term became common. Media refers to organize means of dissemination of fact, opinion, entertainment, and other information, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, banners, billboards, films, TV, the World Wide Web, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, etc.
10.1.2. Newspapers developed from around 1605, with the first example in English in 1620; but they took until the nineteenth century to reach a mass-audience directly. Regular newspaper publication dates from the 1650s. During the Civil War there were regular news-sheets and then news books carrying general information along with propaganda. Following the Restoration there arose a number of publications including the London Gazette (first published on November 16, 1665), the first official newspaper of the Crown. In 1788, there came The Times. This was the most significant newspaper of the first half of the 19th century, but from around 1860 there were a number of more strongly competitive titles, each differentiated by its political biases and interests.
10.1.3. The first recognizably modern papers — depending on advertising and newspaper sales for revenue and providing a mixture of political, economic, and social news and commentary — emerged in Britain in the mid-18th century. As the first country to undergo the Industrial Revolution, Britain was able to provide the complex system of distribution networks, large urban markets, and advertisers necessary to make newspapers profitable enterprises.
During the 19th century, the British model became far more than the technical process of printing, financing, and distributing newspapers; it evolved into a political presence. The Times of London set the standard for a global press. It defined the principle of freedom of the press — the right to criticize the government and to campaign vigorously for its own political views.
10.1.4. Britain has two kinds of national newspaper – the quality papers and the tabloids. The qualities usually deal with home and overseas news, with detailed and extensive coverage of sports and cultural events. The tabloids are smaller in size. They offer news for the less interested in daily news reports. They are characterized by large headlines, carry a lot of big photographs, and concentrate on the personal aspects of news, with reports of the recent sensational and juicy bits of events.
Radio and television.
10.2.1. The story of radio begins in the development of an earlier medium, the telegraph. It was patented simultaneously in 1837 in the United States by Samuel F. B. Morse and in Britain by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke. Later, scientists worked to devise a system that could overcome the limitations of the telegraph wire. The Italian inventor Marconi demonstrated that an electronic signal could be cast broadly (broadcast) through space so that receivers at random points could capture it. The invention was called a radiotelegraph (shortened to radio). Marconi found supporters for his research in Britain and founded the British Marconi Company to develop and market his invention for military and industrial uses. Within five years a wireless signal had been transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean from England to Newfoundland, Canada. For his work in wireless telegraphy, Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1909.
10.2.2. Radio is very popular among the British. Many people rely on the radio to learn the latest news. The main television and radio broadcasting organization in Britain is the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) set up in 1922. John Reith, a Scottish engineer, was appointed the first general manager and became the architect of “public service broadcasting,” in which the profit motive plays no part. Independence from political and business control, provision for minorities, impartiality, and respect for broadcasting as a serious cultural force became its hallmarks. The BBC runs five radio stations, provides television information service in Britain, operating two national television channels. The BBC World Service broadcasts in English and about forty other languages of the world. Britain has one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced telecommunications systems.
10.2.3. Television today is a most important mass medium. The principles on which television is based were discovered in the course of basic research. The Scottish scientist James Maxwell predicted the existence of the electromagnetic waves that make it possible to transmit ordinary television broadcasts. Some of the earliest work on television began in the 1880s, when a German engineer designed the first true television mechanism. His mechanical scanner was used in England by the inventor John L. Baird. The first television picture was shown on October 2, 1925. Baird transmitted a picture of a human face – the face of a fifteen-year-old boy.
10.2.3. In time, the process of watching images on a television screen made people interested in either producing their own images or watching programming at their leisure. Affordable videocassette recorders were introduced and in the 1980s became almost as common as television sets. During the late 1990s the digital video disc player had the most successful product launch in consumer electronics history. The DVD player also offered the digital surround-sound quality experienced in a state-of-the-art movie theater. Another development in this sphere is the high-definition television (HDTV) system.
The era of computers.
10.3.1. The history of the computer is longer than most people think. An early mechanical computer called the Difference Engine was designed by British mathematician and scientist Charles Babbage in the 1830s. Babbage also made plans for another machine, the Analytical Engine, considered the mechanical precursor of the modern computer. Augusta Ada Byron, the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and one of only a few woman mathematicians of her time, was a personal friend and student of Babbage. She prepared extensive notes concerning Babbage’s ideas and the Analytical Engine. Her conceptual programs for the machine led to the naming of a programming language (Ada) in her honor.
10.3.2. One hundred years later, British mathematician Alan Turing proposed the idea of a machine that could process equations without human direction. The machine (now known as a Turing machine) resembled an automatic typewriter that used symbols for math and logic instead of letters. Turing’s machine was the theoretical precursor to the modern digital computer.
However, the first personal computer appeared only in 1975. Graphical user interfaces were first designed by the Xerox Corporation, and later used successfully by Apple Computer, Inc. Today the development of sophisticated operating systems such as Windows enables computer users to run programs and manipulate data in ways that were unimaginable in the mid-20th century.
10.3.3. Computers will become more advanced and they will also become easier to use. Improved speech recognition will make the operation of a computer easier. Virtual reality, the technology of interacting with a computer using all of the human senses, will also contribute to better human and computer interfaces. Standards for virtual-reality program languages—for example, Virtual Reality Modeling language (VRML)—are currently in use or are being developed for the World Wide Web.
The WWW was developed by British physicist and computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee as a project within the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. All necessary information is available on the Web, including anything you will need for your seminars in British and /or American Studies.
10.3.4. In case you don’t know it yet, there is Professional Foreign Language Training Chair site in the Internet (www.kafedrapip.net). It was designed by Nikolai Makarenko and is currently being administered by him. The site was created with a methodological idea in mind, which consists in creating a highly structured focal point for the educational effort paid by the stuff members and students alike. One of the resources available there is the list of useful links to other educational sites, all of which contain gigabytes upon gigabytes of information. You are very welcome to visit the site and become a regular contributor to on-line professional communication network.
Top 10 Britons of all time.
10.4.1. British history is particularly rich in great names – the nation is proud of its many outstanding people who contributed to both world civilization and culture. Yet some people are more famous, some people less. It makes sense to resort to the opinions of the members of British public for advice on who’s who in British history. An opinion poll involving some 30.000 people was carried in the UK at the turn of the present century. The aim was to list 100 top Britons of all time. The results of the poll published in the Internet are of peculiar interest for us, experts in British studies.
10.4.2. You may well do this as out-of-class activity. Work individually first, then do the same in small groups. The table below presents the first 10 out of 100 top British names. The left column of the table below contains the alphabetical list. Fill in the other two columns – your list and group list. The lecturer will provide you with information on the original Top Ten list.
| Alphabetical list | Your priority list | Group priority list | The original list | |
| Brunel | 1 | |||
| Churchill | 2 | |||
| Cromwell | 3 | |||
| Darwin | 4 | |||
| Diana | 5 | |||
| Elizabeth I | 6 | |||
| Lennon | 7 | |||
| Nelson | 8 | |||
| Newton | 9 | |||
| Shakespeare | 10 | Cromwell |
10.4.3. It makes no less sense to remember some of the names which appear in the other half of the top 100 list. For instance, these are King Arthur (51), Florence Nightingale (52), Captain Robert Falcon Scott (54), Sir Alexander Graham Bell (57), Freddie Mercury (58), George Stephenson (68), Sir Charles Chaplin (66), Tony Blair (67), William Caxton (68), Edward Jenner (78), Geoffrey Chaucer (81), James Watt (84), James Clerk Maxwell (91), John R.R. Tolkien (92), David Livingstone (98), Professor Tim Berners-Lee (99), Mary Stopes (100). If you have a good story to tell about most of the people mentioned above, then you do know a thing or two (or even three) about British history and culture.
10.4.4. And, by the way, here is one last question. Do you know what gave Mary Stopes the 100th place on the list? If you don’t, go and find out, will you?
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