The introductory reading list can be found here.

Suggested readings for Archaeology, Assyriology, Egyptology & Biological Anthropology undergraduates

See also the Department of Archaeology website for additional videos/information

Archaeology 

• Barnett, Ross (2019). The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals. Bloomsbury Wildlife.
• Broodbank, C. 2013. The Making of the Middle Sea. Thames and Hudson.
• Fauvelle, F.X. (2018). The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages. Princeton University Press.
• Kelly, R. (2016). The Fifth Beginning : What Six Million Years of Human History Can Tell Us about Our Future.
• McCorriston, J. and Field, J. (2020). Anthropocene: A New Introduction to World Prehistory Parker Pearson, M. (2013). Stonehenge. Simon and Schuster.
• Pascoe, B. (2018). Dark Emu. Broome: Magabala Books
• Pauketat, T. (2010). Cahokia. Penguin.
• Rutherford, A. (2016). A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
• Wragg Sykes, R. (2020). Kindred: Neanderthal life, love, death and art. London Bloomsbury Sigma
• Yong, E. (2017). I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life (01 edition). Vintage.

Textbooks used in the first year

• Renfrew, C. and Bahn, P. 2012. Archaeology: Theory, Methods and Practice, 6th edition, Thames and Hudson, London.
• Scarre, C. (ed.) 2009. The Human Past: World Prehistory and Development of Human Society, 2nd edition, Thames and Hudson, London.

Podcasts 

• Neil McGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects podcast series:
• Women in Archaeology Blog and Podcast Series
• History Hack Podcast: The Terracotta Warriorswith Prof Marcos Martínon Torres
• Archaeopodnet – a collection of podcast series about archeology
• The Museum of Lost Objects. BBC Podcast tracing the histories of antiquities and landmarks that have been destroyed or looted in Iraq and Syria, India and Pakistan. Featuring Dr Augusta McMahon and Dr Martin Worthington

Blogs and news websites 

• Heritage Daily – Archaeology news stories
• The Conversation. Research news – Archaeology topics

Videos

• Cultural heritage: a basic human need – Sada Mire at TEDxEuston
• Recording Archaeology. A Youtube channel that shows presentations from conferences
• Ask an Archaeologist
• Archaeosoup– educational videos about Archaeology
• The Golden Road: Materials, Value and Exchange in the Ancient Americas.(Dr Joanne Pillsbury, Taster Lecture)
• The Political Economy of Precolonial African States(Professor Shadreck Chirikure, Taster Lecture)
• Naked Archaeology

Assyriology 

Mesopotamian archaeology and history 

• Crawford, H. 2017. Sumer and the Sumerians. Cambridge University Press.
• Foster, B.R.  and K. Foster. 2011. Civilisations of Ancient Iraq. Princeton University Press.
• Kuhrt, A. 1995. The Ancient Near East, c 3000-330 BC. Routledge.
• Matthews, R. (2003). Archaeology of Mesopotamia: Theories and Approaches. Routledge.
• Oates, J. (2005) ed. Babylon. Thames & Hudson.
• Postgate, N. (1994). Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. Routledge.
• Roaf, M. (1990). Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia.
• Snell, D. (1997). Life in the Ancient Near East. Yale University Press.
• van de Mieroop, M. (2007) ed. A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000-323 BC. Blackwell.

Akkadian language and literature 

• Dalley, S. (2000) Myths from Mesopotamia. OUP
• Finkel, I. L. and Taylor, J. (2015). Cuneiform. British Museum.
• Foster, B. 2005 (3rd ed.). Before the Muses: Anthology of Akkadian Literature. CDL Press.
• George, A.R. (2007). Babylonian and Assyrian. In J.N. Postgate, ed., Languages of Iraq Ancient and Modern. British Institute for the Study of Iraq.
• George, A. 1999. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Penguin.
• Charpin, D. (2010). Reading and Writing in Babylon. Harvard University Press

Blogs 

• Ancient Near East Today monthly newsletter
• ArchéOrient, le blog . News about the ancient Middle East and Mediterranean from CNRS/ Lyon
• Penn Museum blog, including news from the Ur Digitization Project

Podcast

• Thin end of the wedge

Video 

• The Poor Man of Nippur , a film in Babylonian (with subtitles) which was made by our students.

Digital Hammurabi

Recordings 

• Recordings of modern scholars reading Akkadian

Biological Anthropology 

• Cochran, G. and H. Harpending (2009). The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution, Basic Books.
• Desilva, J. (2021) A Most Interesting Problem: What Darwin’s Descent of Man Got Right and Wrong about Human Evolution. Princeton University Press.
• de Waal, F. (2013) The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism among the Primates. WW Norton, New York.
• de Waal, F. (2016). Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, Granta Publications.
• Harari, Y. N. (2015).  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind  . Vintage.
• Lieberman, D. (2013). The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease, Penguin Books Limited.
• Martin, R. (2013) How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction. Basic Books, New York.
• Mesoudi, A. (2011) Cultural Evolution. Univ. Chicago Press
• Roberts, A. (2021). Ancestors: A Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials. United Kingdom: Simon & Schuster UK.
• Saini, A. (2019). Superior: the return of race science. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Saini, A. (2017). Inferior : How science got women wrong – and the new research that’s rewriting the story
• Stringer, C. & Andrews, P. (2011) The Complete World of Human Evolution. 2nd edition. Thames & Hudson
• Wrangham, R. (2010) Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Profile Books, London.

Podcasts

• The Leakey Foundation.  A podcast about human origins, evolution, and behavior

Blogs and news websites 

• Anthropology/Everything Human blogs
• Conversations in Human Evolution

Digital museum collections 

• National Museum of Kenya Digitised Collection
• African Fossils
• Natural History Museum. Discover Human Evolution

Videos

• CARTA: Center for Academic Research & Training in Anthropogeny – a large video archive of talks exploring and explaining human origins

Egyptology 

Egyptian archaeology 

• Bard, K. (2008). Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Malden MA: Blackwell
• James, T. G. H. (1984). Pharaoh’s People: Scenes from Life in Imperial Egypt. London: Bodley Head.
• Morris, E. (2018). Ancient Egyptian Imperialism.
• Quirke, S. (1992). Ancient Egyptian Religion. London: British Museum Press.
• Robins, G. (1997). The Art of Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press.
• Shaw, I. (2000) (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Shaw, I. (2003). Exploring Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Digital Egypt for Universities

Egyptian Language 

Egyptology resources on HE+ website

Collier, M. and Manley B. (1998). How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: a step-by-step guide to teach yourself. London: British Museum Press, 1998.

Fischer, H. G. (1999). Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Simpson, W. K. et al. (2003). The Literature of Ancient Egypt. Yale University Press.

Suggested reading for incoming Architecture students:

• John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture – various editions, any will do
• William JR Curtis, Modern Architecture Since 1900, ideally the 1996 edition.
• Andrew Saint, The Image of the Architect, Yale, 1983
• Frampton, K., Modern Architecture, A Critical History, Thames and Hudson, 2017.
• Koolhaas, R., Delirious, New York, Oxford University Press, 1978.
• De Graaf, R. Four Walls and a Roof, Harvard University Press, 2017.

You should be able to find these books in major public libraries (though of course you are free to buy copies should you feel so inclined). Please note that you are not expected to make detailed notes at this stage — you will not be tested on arrival! It will provide you with an overview, sections of which will be referred to in detail as needed during the year.

The Department of Architecture will also provide a further reading list in September.

Reading List and Preparatory Work for Incoming First‐Year Students in Chinese

Students reading Chinese are required to read the following before starting their course:

Valerie Hansen,The Open Empire. A History of China to 1800(London:Norton, 2015, second ed.)

Klaus Muehlhahn,Making China Modern. From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping(Cambridge MA.: The Bellknap Pres of Harvard University Press, 2019).

Roel Sterckx. Chinese Thought. From Confucius to Cook Ding (London: Penguin, 2019; paperback 2020).

To make a start with learning the language before arriving in Cambridge, we advise you to read the following sections in the Oxford Beginner’s Chinese Dictionary (ISBN:0‐19‐929853):

Basic rules of writing Chinese characters

Learning and lifestyle kit

Dictionary know‐how

The Chinese words and phrases you must know

Numbers

Phrasefinder

Dates for your diary

Quick reference guide to life and culture

Social survival guide.

All students (both those reading Chinese and Japanese) are required to read the following in preparation of EAS1, “An Introduction to East Asian History”.

Shirokauer, Lurie and Gay. A Brief History of Japanese Civilization. Wadsworth Publishing. 4th edition, 2012.

Ebrey, P., The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge UP.

Kyung Moon Hwang, A History of Korea. Palgrave Macmillan.

The following books may be of interest to you, but they are usually recommended to students at the end of their first year:

• K. A. Solen and J. N. Harb (2010) Introduction to Chemical Engineering: tools for today and tomorrow. Wiley, ISBN 9780470885727.

This book is fairly short (227 pages) and is easy to read. It describes the discipline and gives examples of the different types of calculations that are performed by chemical engineers. Don’t be put off by the use of old-fashioned American units throughout the book. The book may be under its former title: Introduction to Chemical Process Fundamentals & Design.

• M. M. Denn (2012) Chemical Engineering: an introduction. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9781107669376.

This book has similar aims to the above book. It describes the discipline well and gives examples of applications of chemical engineering, including mathematical analysis of them. This makes it less user-friendly as an introduction then the above book, but it is still worth a look. It’s not too long (about 250 pages).

• D. J. C. MacKay (2009) Sustainable Energy – without the hot air. UIT Cambridge, ISBN 9780954452933. Available online for free.

“At last a book that comprehensively reveals the true facts about sustainable energy in a form that is both highly readable and entertaining.” Robert Sansom, EDF Energy.

Students are strongly recommended to use the following resources as revision for their A Level (or equivalent) studies and also during the summer vacation.  These resources are focused around interactive questions for students to solve but have supporting material in the form of revision notes, short videos, hints and instant feedback.

Maths

There are also some books NOT to read (at least not until much later):

• Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook. McGraw Hill.
• Coulson & Richardson’s Chemical Engineering, volumes 1-6, Butterworth-Heinemann.

This are fantastic and widely-used books. But they are (very expensive) reference books and reading them would not be a good way to prepare for the Chemical Engineering course.

Your Director of Studies will contact you at a later date. Meanwhile, take a look at the University reading lists above.

It is highly recommended that offer holders read the following book:

Operating System Concepts by A. Silberchatz

Hal R. Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics, 9^th edition.

Mankiw, N. G. and M. P. Taylor, Macroeconomics, European Edition, (2^nd edition)

Sydsaeter, K and P Hammond, Essential Mathematics for Economic Analysis (4^th edition)

Chang, H-J, Economics: The User’s Guide

Roderick Floud, Jane Humphries and Paul Johnson (eds) 2014. The Cambridge Economic history of Modern Britain. Volumes 1 and 2.

Crehan L 2016 Cleverlands: the secrets behind the world’s education superpowers. Unbound

Green A 2013 Education and state formation. Springer 2nd edition

Stigler J & Stevenson H 1991 How Asian teachers polish each lesson to perfection. American Educator Spring 1991

Pring R 2014 John Dewey. Bloomsbury

Cambridge Assessment 2017 A Cambridge approach to improving education. Cambridge Assessment

Black P & Wiliam D 1998 Inside the black box. GL Assessment

Preparatory work to be done prior to the start of term will be distributed by the start of September.

Start with Dickens, the longest text here, then continue. Where the poetry appears in collections, feel free to read more widely in them. Try to read through List A over the summer, dipping into List B as time allows. Most of these literary texts are available in affordable editions. Critical reading will follow, when you have access to e-books.

List A

• Charles Dickens, Bleak House
• Tennyson, ‘Maud’ (in, e.g., Selected Poems, ed. Ricks (Penguin), or equivalent)
• Robert Browning, ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’ (in, e.g., Selected Poems, ed. Karlin (Penguin), or equivalent)
• Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, The Waves and To the Lighthouse
• James Joyce, Dubliners
• Katherine Mansfield, Collected Stories
• Dorothy Richardson, Journey to Paradise
• Zora Neale Hurston Collected Stories
• Christopher Isherwood, Good Bye to Berlin
• Poetry of the 1930s, ed. Robin Skelton (Penguin)
• T.S. Eliot, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘Preludes’ (in Selected Poems or equivalent)

The follow up with SOME of the following:

List B

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure

Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Elizabeth von Arnim, Vera

Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners

Short stories by D. H. Lawrence

George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier

James Joyce, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall

Due to the broad nature of Geography we don’t issue a set reading list prior to arrival in Cambridge. Instead we encourage you to maintain a strong interest in those areas of geography that interest you, and to explore new issues and areas. This might come from
a range of sources such as blogs (try The Conversation), newspapers and current affairs journals, magazines like New Scientist, The Economist, Geographical Magazine and Geography Review, and even novels.The following are therefore not ‘set’ texts. There is no expectation you will have read any of them, and you are certainly not expected to work your way through them all! But if you do want suggestions, here are some. Remember to read ‘critically’, that is, to not take everything at face value, but consider the thinking behind any particular argument.

Alley, Richard (ed.) (2014) The two mile time machine: ice cores, abrupt climate change, and our future

Berners-Lee, Mike (2019) There is no Planet B: A handbook for the make or break years

de Blij, Harm (2012) Why geography matters more than ever

Chang, Ha-Joon (2010) 23 things they don’t tell you about capitalism

Conway, Erik and Oreskes, Naomi (2010) Merchants of Doubt

Criado Perez, Caroline (2019) Invisible Women

Dee, Tim (2013) Four Fields

Desmond, Matthew (2016) Evicted

Dorling, Danny (2017) Do we need economic inequality?

Dorling, Danny and Lee, Carl (2016) Geography: Ideas in profile

Dyer, Geoff (2016) White Sands: experiences from the outside world

Ebbesmeyer, Curtis and Scigliano, Eric (2009) Flotsametrics and the floating world (how one man’s obsession with runaway sneakers and rubber ducks revolutionized ocean science)

Green, Duncan (2016) How change happens

Hansen, James (2011) Storms of my grandchildren: the truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity

Harari, Yuval Noah (2014) Sapiens: a brief history of humankind

Harari, Yuval Noah (2016) Homo Deus: a brief history of tomorrow

Harvey, David (2012) Rebel cities

Hoare, Philip (2013) The Sea Inside

Hulme, Mike (2009) Why we disagree about climate change

Jackson, Tim (2009) Prosperity without Growth: economics for a finite planet

Jones, Reece (2016) Violent Borders: refugees and the right to move

Klein, Naomi (2007) The Shock Doctrine

Klein, Naomi (2014) This changes everything

Lichtenstein, Rachel (2016) Estuary: out from London to the sea

Macfarlane, Robert (2003) Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination

Massey, Doreen (2005) For Space

Mayne, Alan (2017) Slums: the history of a global injustice

Nayak, Anoop and Jeffrey, Alex (2011) Geographical Thought: an introduction to ideas in human geography

Oppenheimer, Clive (2011) Eruptions that shook the world

Pascoe, Bruce (2018) Dark Emu

Platt, Edward (2019) The Great Flood: travels through a sodden landscape

Pollard, Michael and Pollard, Jamie (2017) North Sea Surge: the story of the east coast floods of 1953 (2nd Edition)

Purseglove, Jeremy (2017) Taming the Food: rivers, wetlands and the centuries-old battle against flooding

Rosling, Hans (2018) Factfulness

Rosling, Hans (2020) How I learned to understand the world

Sassen, Saskia (2015) Expulsions

Shah, Sonia (2016) Pandemic

Solnit, Rebecca (1997) Book of Migrations

Solnit, Rebecca (2004) Hope in the Dark

Solnit, Rebecca (2010) Infinite City

Spiegelhalter, David and Blastland, Michael (2013) The Norm Chronicles

Thomas, Chris D. (2017) Inheritors of the Earth: how nature is thriving in an age of extinction

Thompson, Christina (2019) Sea People: in search of the ancient navigators of the Pacific

Tortell, Philippe (ed) (2020). Earth 2020: an insider’s guide to a rapidly changing planet

Trouet, Valerie (2020) Tree Story: the history of the world written in rings

Wulf, Andrea and Melcher, Lillian (2019) The adventures of Alexander von Humboldt (This book is a graphic version of Wulf’s biography of Humboldt listed below)

Wulf, Andrea (2015) The Invention of Nature: the adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the lost hero of science

Wylie, John (2007) Landscape: key ideas in geography

Zalasiewicz, Jan (2009) The Earth after Us: what legacy will humans leave in the rocks?

Camilla Townsend, The Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs (Oxford University Press, 2019)

Sudhir Hazareesingh, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture (Penguin, 2020)

The different Part 1A outline papers will provide both general reading lists and specific weekly readings to frame your essay writing and small-group or 1:1 sessions with a supervisor, and these will be available to you upon arrival in Cambridge. There are no set texts common across the entire cohort for the 1A outline papers, but the following two texts will form the basis for our Introduction to Historical Thinking classes in college. We will read Townsend’s book, together with reviews, commentaries and related work, in weeks 3 and 6 of the first term, and focus on Hazareesingh’s book in the same weeks of the second term. In reading and discussing these texts, we will keep in mind the choices that their authors made, the contexts in which they wrote, and the themes that the books engage with, as well as their critical reception. By working closely with these two books over the course of the year, we can explore, in-depth, different approaches to historical research, analysis and interpretation, and writing, and your own historical thinking and writing.

We haven’t yet updated our resources for this course so feel free to keeping checking back for updates. Meanwhile please check out the University reading lists above.

The History and Politics Tripos is a joint Honours degree which offers subjects from Cambridge’s History and Politics and International Relations courses, together with bespoke papers which allow students to explore the space between the two disciplines.

The aim of studying History and Politics is to further your understanding and knowledge of the world around you and to learn to present your arguments with clarity, insight and discrimination. Historians and social scientists have to mine a large body of material efficiently; to evaluate its significance and utility in answering important questions about societies, institutions, cultures and individuals; and to order their thoughts on these matters succinctly and clearly.

First-year (Part IA) History and Politics students take four papers which provide a core foundation of knowledge for more specialized courses in the second year (Part IB) and the third year (Part II). Three of the first year papers (Evidence and Argument, POL1, and POL2) are taken by all students, and more details of these papers are given below (though please note that this information is subject to change). The fourth paper is chosen from a wide range of Outline papers offered by the History Faculty, which are defined by chronology and/or geography (usually, a continent or hemisphere over an historical epoch): for example, early medieval Europe, early modern Britain, modern Europe, the South since 1750, or North America since 1800. Students generally have six supervisions for each of the two Politics papers and up to twelve supervisions for the History Outline paper, spread across Michaelmas and Lent Terms. The Evidence and Argument paper is taught through lectures and classes, and is assessed through a long essay which students submit in Easter Term.

Some offer holders have asked us to suggest some pointers for preliminary reading, so we have included a short list of possible background readings for the three compulsory papers. We do not expect students to work through this list in any systematic way, but we hope that these readings will whet your appetite for studying History and Politics in Cambridge.

Evidence and Argument

Evidence and Argument is our bridge paper for first-year History and Politics students which is designed to provide an introduction to key concepts, approaches, and methods from across the two disciplines.

Both the History Faculty and the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge are unusually broad and eclectic in their interests and approaches. In History, interests range from the traditional realm of ‘high’ politics to social and cultural history, the history of political thought, and the use of quantitative data to reconstruct economic and demographic changes which stretch across decades or even centuries. Some Politics lecturers see themselves as ‘political scientists’, developing theories and models which seek to explain processes of political change, whilst others eschew social science and focus on understanding the meanings and intentions of political actors. Why do these disciplinary choices matter? How do they shape the kinds of evidence we use and the arguments we construct?

Suggestions for background reading

History

• Richard Evans, In Defence of History (1997; paperback edition, 2001)
• John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past (2004)
• David Cannadine (ed.), What is History Now? (2002)
• Ulinka Rublack (ed.), A Concise Companion to History (2012)
• Stefan Berger et al. (eds.), Writing History: Theory and Practice (2003; second edition, 2010; third edition, 2020)

Politics

• Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, Democracy for Realists (2016)
• Bernard Crick, In Defence of Politics (1962 and subsequent editions)
• Russell Dalton, Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies (1996 and subsequent editions)
• Iain McLean, Public Choice: An Introduction (1987)

POL1: The Modern State and its Alternatives

This paper is one of the two first-year Politics papers taken by students in History and Politics and Human, Social and Political Sciences (HSPS). It seeks to understand the practical and imaginative foundations of modern politics and the reaction and resistance to them. POL1 is structured around set texts, which are not there to be analysed as texts per se but to be considered for the arguments they contain.

The paper begins with the modern state – the predominant basis on which political authority and power are constructed across the world today to try to avoid disorder. Where there is no modern state, there tends to be civil war or occupation by other states. Where modern states are ineffective, politics is unstable and sometimes violent, and governments struggle to manage the economy. But the modern state also is a site of violence and an instrument of power that has been used at times in history to inflict suffering on those subject to its coercive capacity at home and imperial reach abroad.

Within modern states, representative democracy has become the predominant form of government in the world. As an idea it excites because it appears to offer equality, liberty and self-rule, but it also frequently disappoints in practice as it rarely does realise these values and the goods it promises frequently clash with each other. The second part of the paper looks at the origins of representative democracy. Focussing largely, although not exclusively, on the American experience of democracy, it seeks to unpack the paradoxes of representative democracy as a form of government that rhetorically invokes the ‘rule of the people’, the apparent historical success of representative democracy, and its relationship to the conditions of material prosperity and the distribution of wealth.

The final part of the paper examines the coherence and persuasiveness of a number of political critiques of the modern state and representative democracy. It considers the critique made by Marx of the democratic modern state as the capitalist state, Gandhi’s rejection of the violence and alienated sovereignty of modern politics in search of a return to a soul-based civilisation, and Hannah Arendt’s distinctive approach to politics and power. It concludes by reflecting on whether ‘the end of democracy’ is nigh.

Suggestions for background reading

• David Runciman, Politics (2014)
• John Dunn, Western Political Theory in the Face of the Future (1979 and subsequent editions)
• Alan Ryan, On Politics (2012)

POL2: International Conflict, Order and Justice

POL2 is Cambridge’s first-year international relations paper which, like POL1, is taken by students in History and Politics and HSPS. It is designed to introduce students to politics beyond the state. The dominant traditions in the study of international relations in the West since World War II have emphasized the power of and relations among states – their conflicts and efforts at coordination. But as new global realities have emerged in recent decades, new theoretical approaches have emerged which seek to re-interpret conventional histories of international order.

Some critics of mainstream international relations argue that scholars need to pay more attention to actors beyond the state – such as international organizations, social movements, multinational corporations, or terrorist groups – in order to understand international politics. Others have argued that the traditional focus on interaction between states has obscured the ways in which alternative logics – such as race, gender, or supposed civilizational divides – shape the world we live in. This paper seeks to explore international politics in the broadest sense – allowing students to make up their own mind on what issues matter, whose experiences should be the basis for theory, and what methodological tools we can use in this pursuit.

Suggestions for background reading

Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016)

Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963)

Michael Ignatieff, Empire Lite: Nation-Building in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan (2003)

Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (2004)

Vijay Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (2008)

Suggested Reading List from History of Art Faculty website:

Surveys

• S. F. Eisenman and others, Nineteenth-Century Art: A Critical History (several eds.)
• E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art (several eds.)
• H. Honour & J. Fleming, A World History of Art (several eds.)
• N. Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture (several eds.)
• J. Summerson, Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830 (Pelican History of Art), (several eds.)
• D. Watkin, A History of Western Architecture, London 1986

Reference books

You may like to buy the following titles, which will be useful throughout the course:

• J.R. Hale (ed.), A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance (several eds.)
• J. Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, John Murray, 1974
• J. Fleming, H. Honour, N. Pevsner, The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture (several eds.)

Historical Approaches

During the course you will study the critical approaches of past authors, many of whom offer inspiring views of the subject.

• C. Baudelaire, The painter of Modern Life & other Essays, ed. J. Mayne (several eds.)
• B. Berenson, The Italian Painters of the Renaissance (several eds.)
• J. Burckhardt, The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (several eds.)
• R. Fry, Cézanne: a Study of his Development, London 1927
• E. Mâle, The Gothic Image, London 1961
• G. Morelli, Italian Painters: Critical Studies of their Works, London 1892
• E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, Stockholm 1960
• E. Panofsky, Studies in Iconology (several eds.)
• M. Podro, The Critical Historians of Art (several eds.)
• J. Reynolds, Discourses on Art, ed. R. Wark (several eds.)
• F. Saxl, Lectures, London 1957
• M. Schapiro, Word and Image, Leyden 1972
• G. Vasari, Lives of the Artists (several eds.)
• H. Wölfflin, Principles of Art History (several eds.)

Special Topics

Finally, some suggestions for more specialised reading:

• M. Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy, 2nd ed., Oxford 1988
• J. Gage, Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction, London 1993
• E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion (several eds.)
• F. Haskell & N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, New Haven & London 1981
• M. Kemp, The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (several eds.)
• G. Pollock, Vision and difference: femininity, feminism and the histories of art, London 1988
• J. Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture (several eds.)
• J. White, The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space (several eds.)

We haven’t yet updated our resources for this course so feel free to keeping checking back for updates. Meanwhile, check out the University reading lists above.

INTRODUCTORY TEXTS

If you are able to access copies of the books below, they provide a good (although not mandatory) introduction to the study of law.

• Barnard, O’Sullivan and Virgo, What About Law? (2nd ed., 2011, Hart Publishing)
• McBride, Letters to a Law Student: A Guide to Studying Law at University (5th edition, 2022, Pearson)

SUBJECT MATTER READING

You will be taking the core subjects of Civil Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Tort Law in your first year.  Included below are texts that will provide useful background reading for those subjects.  You do not need to purchase these books unless you can find cheap second hand copies, since new versions of these books are, unfortunately, expensive.  However, if you can skim through these books prior to the start of Michaelmas Term, you will be well set for the term ahead.  Ideally, you should at least have a grasp as to what each of these areas of law entails from a general perspective, and, therefore, as an alternative, there is plenty of free available material online if you can not access the books.  Your supervisors will, early in October, advise you on books for each paper, which may or may not include the books below.

CIVIL LAW

• Nicholas, An Introduction to Roman Law, pp. 1-59 (Clarendon, 1962)

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

• Bingham, The Rule of Law (Penguin, 2011);
• Martin Loughlin, The British Constitution: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2013)
• Follow Mark Elliott’s Public Law for Everyone Blog

CRIMINAL LAW

• Padfield, Criminal Law (10th ed 2016)

LAW OF TORT

• Weir, An Introduction to Tort Law (2^nd ed., 2006)

We haven’t yet updated our resources for this course so feel free to keeping checking back for updates. Meanwhile, check out the University reading lists.

Suggested reading can be found here.

What to expect when you arrive in Cambridge

Typically there will be between 10-12 medical students and 2-3 veterinary students in each year group. Churchill College has an active medical and veterinary student community that provides a supportive and welcoming environment. Throughout the year there will be several Medical and Veterinary Society events providing opportunity to get to know students in all year groups.

You will probably find the first few days in Cambridge the most hectic of your academic life. Since, in this University, the basic rule for survival is to keep your nerve, do not despair: after ten days to a fortnight you will see a pattern emerging from the general chaos. Remember that Tutors and Directors of Studies are here to help you.

In very simple terms, the College can be likened to ‘home’ and the University to ‘school’. The College feeds you and accommodates you. It also provides you with a Tutor, who is responsible for your general welfare, and a Director of Studies who is there to advise and
guide you in academic matters. You leave College each morning to attend lectures and practicals in the University Laboratories on Downing Site, but it is the College and not the University which makes sure you are coping adequately with your University work; this it
does (through your Director of Studies) by assigning you to a supervisor in each of the various subjects. You meet each supervisor for an hour each week, usually with two or three of your colleagues, and the hour is spent in discussing aspects of the course not directly covered by lectures, or in sorting out any problems or difficulties encountered during the previous week’s work. Essays are set from time to time during the Term and many of these provide further topics for discussion.

Things to consider before arriving in Cambridge

• A bicycle – preferably not too new and fully equipped with reflectors and lights and a very good lock – is an essential part of Cambridge life. If you have a bicycle, it is therefore well worth bringing it with you, because second hand bicycles here are
  expensive and in great demand.
• Text books – We advise you to postpone book purchases until you have had a chance to listen to advice and sample a few different books. You will likely find students in higher years selling their text books when you arrive also.
• Discipline – Medical students have certain privileges and responsibilities different from those of other students. Because of this, different standards of professional behaviour are expected of you. Serious disciplinary matters can have implications for your career. Please look carefully at the information here. This reading is MANDATORY for all medical students prior to arrival in Cambridge and they may wish to refer to it on an ongoing basis.

Useful websites

There are many websites providing useful information for you both as future Cambridge medical undergraduates, but also as future doctors:

• Churchill College – lots of useful information about life as students in the college
• University Faculty of Biology – Advice and information about various aspects of the pre-clinical course
• University Clinical School – Advice and information about the clinical course
• University of Cambridge Medical Society (https://www.cambridgemedsoc.com/)
• General Medical Society
• British Medical Association

Directors of Studies

As medical students at Churchill your Directors of Studies will be:

• Dr Elizabeth Soilleux – [email protected] (Years 1-3), 07798 643897
• Dr Jason Ali – [email protected] (Years 4 – 6)

If you have any specific questions about the medical course before you come into residence please don’t hesitate to get in contact.

Background reading

The main subjects you will be studying in your first year are anatomy, biochemistry and physiology. Please ensure you have undertaken the background reading below before you arrive in Cambridge, almost all of which was suggested by current students. Please ask if you struggle to obtain any material, but the internet will cover most topics.

Things you should have covered at A-level (but you may have done only 3 of these 4 subjects). All these topics are built on in the course, so please ensure you are extremely familiar with them:

• Organic chemistry (from chemistry +/-biology)
  • Protein structure
  • Enzyme kinetic
  • Glycolysis, citric acid cycle, oxidative phosphorylation and fatty acid metabolism
  • ELISA, Bradford assay and western blot principles
  • Definitions and main features of DNA, RNA, protein, glycoprotein and proteoglycan
  • Good understanding acids and bases
• Biology
  • What tissues are made of
  • Function of subcellular structures (eg., mitochondria, Golgi)
  • Mammalian physiology
• Physics
  • Basic electrical equations
  • Capacitance
  • Flow principles
  • Force and pressure
• Mathematics
  • Logs, natural logs and exponential
  • Understand how to plot log graphs on log paper and semi-log paper
  • Basic algebra
  • Basic statistics

New material to give you a head start

• Fun videos to brush up your physiology by Dr Matt Mason, University of Cambridge. Please familiarise yourself with all of these short videos
• Get a head start in anatomy (our course starts with upper limb and basic embryology) here or here
• Overview of basic anatomy and physiology. This website can give you a great head start, particularly things like the anatomical terminology under “Intro to the Human Body”
• If you have not studied A-level mathematics, some additional material is available here, to which we can give you access, in order to ensure that you have an appropriate level of mathematics. Please contact the Tutorial Office ([email protected]) to arrange access to this. This opportunity is open to all students, but those with A-Level Mathematics should have covered all this material already.

Optimise your study skills. Possibly the one single thing you could do with the biggest impact on academic performance. Wikipedia provides an interesting entry point for you to think about what works (or might work) for you). There are many books on the topic also.

We haven’t yet updated our resources for this course so feel free to keeping checking back for updates. Meanwhile, check out the University reading lists.

For MML students who selected Russian as one of their languages, some suggestions on preparatory work is here: https://www.mmll.cam.ac.uk/offer-holders/information-offer-holders-slavonic

Information and resources can be found here.

Once your grades have been confirmed, the Music Faculty also offer an online summer course in preparation for Harmony and Counterpoint. The College’s Director of Studies in Music highly recommends that you make the most of this opportunity which is paid for by the Faculty.

Some suggested reading for Biological Natural Scientists:

Andrew H Knoll, Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth, Princeton Science Library

Frances Ashcroft, The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body, Penguin

Sean Carroll, Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom, Quercus

John Archibald, One plus One Equals One: Symbiosis and the Evolution of Complex Life, OUP

Students are strongly recommended to use the following resources as revision for their A Level (or equivalent) studies and also during the summer vacation.  These resources are focused around interactive questions for students to solve but have supporting material in the form of revision notes, short videos, hints and instant feedback.

Physics

Maths

There are many good introductory Philosophy books, and many lists of suggested reading for beginners. Our philosophers have compiled a suggested reading list (below), but any Philosophy reading you do will help, as long as you read critically. Try a number of authors. If you find one dull or exasperating or hard to understand, try another.

Smith, P. and Jones, O.R. The Philosophy of Mind, (Cambridge University Press)

Russell, B. Problems of Philosophy, (Oxford University Press)

Nagel, T. What Does it All Mean?, (Oxford University Press)

Blackburn, S W. Think, (Oxford University Press)

Descartes, R. Meditations, (Many acceptable editions)

Mill, J.S. Utilitarianism, (Many acceptable editions)

Warnock, G.J. Contemporary Moral Philosophy, (Macmillan)

Williams, B.A.O. Morality, (Cambridge University Press)

Smith, P. Formal Logic: an introduction

Hodges, W. Logic, (Penguin)

Campbell, K. Body and Mind, (Notre Dame)

Carruthers, P. Introducing Persons, (Routledge)

The following are suitable for pre-reading:

Sapolsky, R (1994). Why zebras don’t get ulcers (Macmillan)

Blakemore, S-J (2018) Inventing ourselves (Royal Society).

Bullmore, E. (2018). The inflamed mind (Macmillan).

Criado-Perez, C. (2019) Invisible women (Chatto).

Damasio, A. (2010). Self comes to mind: constructing the conscious brain. (Vintage Books).

LeDoux, J (2003). Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are (Penguin).

Fine, C (2017). Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the myths of our gendered mind (Royal Society).

Haidt, J. (2012). The Righteous Mind (Penguin).

Hrdy, S (2011). Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding (Harvard
University Press).

Kahneman, D (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux).

Pinker, S (2011). The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking).

Sacks, O (1985). The Man who mistook his wife for a hat (Summit Books).

Smith, P. and Jones, O.R. The Philosophy of Mind, (Cambridge University Press)

Russell, B. Problems of Philosophy, (Oxford University Press)

Nagel, T. What Does it All Mean?, (Oxford University Press)

Blackburn, S W. Think, (Oxford University Press)

Descartes, R. Meditations, (Many acceptable editions)

Mill, J.S. Utilitarianism, (Many acceptable editions)

Warnock, G.J. Contemporary Moral Philosophy, (Macmillan)

Williams, B.A.O. Morality, (Cambridge University Press)

Smith, P. Formal Logic: an introduction

Hodges, W. Logic, (Penguin)

Campbell, K. Body and Mind, (Notre Dame)

Carruthers, P. Introducing Persons, (Routledge)

What to expect when you arrive in Cambridge

Typically there will be between 10-12 medical students and 2-3 veterinary students in each year group. Churchill College has an active medical and veterinary student community that provides a supportive and welcoming environment. Throughout the year there will be several Medical and Veterinary Society events providing opportunity to get to know students in all year groups.

You will probably find the first few days in Cambridge the most hectic of your academic life. Since, in this University, the basic rule for survival is to keep your nerve, do not despair: after ten days to a fortnight you will see a pattern emerging from the general chaos. Remember that Tutors and Directors of Studies are here to help you.

In very simple terms, the College can be likened to ‘home’ and the University to ‘school’. The College feeds you and accommodates you. It also provides you with a Tutor, who is responsible for your general welfare, and a Director of Studies who is there to advise and
guide you in academic matters. You leave College each morning to attend lectures and practicals in the University Laboratories on Downing Site, but it is the College and not the University which makes sure you are coping adequately with your University work; this it does (through your Director of Studies) by assigning you to a supervisor in each of the various subjects. You meet each supervisor for an hour each week, usually with two or three of your colleagues, and the hour is spent in discussing aspects of the course not directly covered by lectures, or in sorting out any problems or difficulties encountered during the previous week’s work. Essays are set from time to time during the Term and many of these provide further topics for discussion.

Things to consider before arriving in Cambridge

• A bicycle – preferably not too new and fully equipped with reflectors and lights and a very good lock – is an essential part of Cambridge life. If you have a bicycle, it is therefore well worth bringing it with you, because second hand bicycles here are
  expensive and in great demand.
• Text books – We advise you to postpone book purchases until you have had a chance to listen to advice and sample a few different books. You will likely find students in higher years selling their text books when you arrive also.
• Discipline – Veterinary students have certain privileges and responsibilities different from those of other students. Because of
  this, different standards of professional behaviour are expected of you. Serious disciplinary matters can have implications for
  your career. Please look carefully at the information here. This reading is MANDATORY for all veterinary students prior to arrival in
  Cambridge and they may wish to refer to it on an ongoing basis

Useful websites

There are many websites providing useful information for you both as future Cambridge undergraduates, but also as future vets:

• Churchill College – lots of useful information about life as students in the college
• University Faculty of Biology – Advice and information about various aspects of the pre-clinical course
• University Veterinary School – Advice and information about the clinical course
• University of Cambridge Veterinary Society
• Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (https://www.rcvs.org.uk/home/%20)

Directors of Studies

As medical students at Churchill your Directors of Studies will be:

• Dr Elizabeth Soilleux – [email protected] (Years 1-3), 07798 643897
• Prof Mark Holmes – [email protected] (Years 4 – 6)

If you have any specific questions about the veterinary course before you come into residence please don’t hesitate to get in contact.

Background reading

The main subjects you will be studying in your first year are anatomy, biochemistry and physiology. Please ensure you have undertaken the background reading below before you arrive in Cambridge, almost all of which was suggested by current students. Please ask if you struggle to obtain any material, but the internet will cover most topics.

Things you should have covered at A-level (but you may have done only 3 of these 4 subjects). All these topics are built on in the course, so please ensure you are extremely familiar with them:

• Organic chemistry (from chemistry +/-biology)
  • Protein structure
  • Enzyme kinetic
  • Glycolysis, citric acid cycle, oxidative phosphorylation and fatty acid metabolism
  • ELISA, Bradford assay and western blot principles
  • Definitions and main features of DNA, RNA, protein, glycoprotein and proteoglycan
  • Good understanding acids and bases
• Biology
  • What tissues are made of
  • Function of subcellular structures (eg., mitochondria, Golgi)
  • Mammalian physiology
• Physics
  • Basic electrical equations
  • Capacitance
  • Flow principles
  • Force and pressure
• Mathematics
  • Logs, natural logs and exponential
  • Understand how to plot log graphs on log paper and semi-log paper
  • Basic algebra
  • Basic statistics

New material to give you a head start

• Fun videos to brush up your physiology by Dr Matt Mason, University of Cambridge. Please familiarise yourself with all of these short videos
• Get a head start in anatomy (our course starts with upper limb and basic embryology) here or here
• Overview of basic anatomy and physiology. This website can give you a great head start, particularly things like the anatomical terminology under “Intro to the Human Body”
• If you have not studied A-level mathematics, some additional material is available here, to which we can give you access, in order to ensure that you have an appropriate level of mathematics. Please contact the Tutorial Office ([email protected]) to arrange access to this. This opportunity is open to all students, but those with A-Level Mathematics should have covered all this material already.

Optimise your study skills. Possibly the one single thing you could do with the biggest impact on academic performance. Wikipedia provides an interesting entry point for you to think about what works (or might work) for you). There are many books on the topic also.