Clare Through the Twentieth Century: Portrait of a Cambridge College

Numerous histories have been written of the older colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. During the 20th century, Clare, founded in 1326, has two - Manfield Forbes' eccentric six century survey up to 1926, and Richard Eden's recent Clare College and the Founding of Clare Hall. However no previous attempt has been made by the College, or as far as is known by any Oxbridge college, to present a wide-ranging overview of college life and learning through the 20th century. After World War II, all our institutions strove to regain solidarity and security. By 1975, Clare was a college that would never be the same again; one of the first to admit women (1972), an increasing proportion of its students coming from state schools, powerful societies and academic excellence as its credentials. In 1999 it was the first college in Cambridge to have sufficient confidence in the efficacy of its own procedures to allow the media to observe, uncensored, the admissions process.