This entertaining new account of Cambridge in the later nineteenth century contains the complete text of F. M. Cornford's famous satire of 1908 on University politics, Microcosmographia Academica, together with a full account of the controversies which gave rise to it. Cambridge during this period was being subjected to pressure for reform from within and outside the University, forcing it to radical social and academic change, above all by extending and changing the curriculum and by admitting women. These matters, many of which remain in debate at the end of the twentieth century in Cambridge and in the wider academic community, provoked fierce debates and provided a rich context for Cornford's pamphlet. The book contains a selection of contemporary photographs and portraits, some not previously published.