Description:
Glamour - ambition - fame - despair. You meet them all at the Oxford Union, possibly the most prestigious student debating society in the world. The Oxford Union has been the training ground for a parade of the greatest names in British politics from William Gladstone to Tony Benn not to mention Asquith, heath, Heseltine and a host of others. Guest speakers have ranged from Michael Jackson to Bill Clinton, from Malcolm X to the Queen (who did not, of course, assert any opinions). The Oxford Union is proud of its tradition as a hot house training ground of British and global political talent.

This book throws open the portals of the Oxford Union as it follows the excitement, anxiety and manoeuvring of a campaign for the post of President. The author, an academic anthropologist, trailed a candidate for the post of President when making a film for Japanese television. She followed him from the nomination process to election night and beyond. This has provided the basis for an anthropological study of this most 'establishment' institution ~ a study that throws new light on the workings of British politics. Using the Oxford Union as a guide the focus of the study is on British political ideology. What kind of person succeeds in British politics? What do they need to do to win elections? The study of the Union is fascinating in its own right as ethnography of the sort of institution that has rarely been studied by anthropologists.

Of interest to all those fascinated by Oxford and British politics this is an excellent undergraduate level text in social anthropology.

Fiona Graham is an Oxford trained anthropologist and now lectures at the National University of Singapore. She has been a freelance journalist and broadcaster.