To be chosen as a Rhodes Scholar is to join the company of a highly select group: former scholars include presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors, archbishops, authors, judges, and other important figures. Over 7,000 individuals have received the world’s most prestigious scholarship in the century since Cecil John Rhodes, the British-born founder of the De Beers diamond company, established through his will the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes scholarships. This fascinating history traces the evolution of the Trust and its scholarship program from Rhodes’s vision in 1902 to the new world of the twenty-first century.
Rhodes specified the criteria for selecting scholars, stipulating public service as their highest aim. An avowed imperialist, he dreamed of a white masculine Anglo-Saxon hegemony that would lead to world peace and prosperity. The book explores how the organization changed after the Empire faded and how Rhodes’s vision has been made relevant today, particularly through the vital contributions of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation in South Africa.
Prominent American Rhodes Scholars include:
J. William Fulbright Robert Penn Warren Bill Bradley Wesley Clark Bill Clinton Strobe Talbott David Souter George Stephanopoulos
List of Illustrations
Pt. I The Founder 1
1 Building a Fortune 3
2 The Imperial Dream 8
3 Life after Death 13
Pt. II Foundations 21
4 Setting up the Scholarships 23
5 The Criteria 30
6 Surplus Funds 37
Pt. III The Age of Empire 45
7 First Arrivals 47
8 Trust and Empire 56
9 Lesser Mortals 63
10 Americans are Different 69
11 The Colonials 76
12 First Impressions 82
13 The First World War 86
14 Play Resumed 93
15 The Trust between the Wars 97
16 The Oxford Experience 104
17 Rhodes House 112
18 Money and Empire 117
19 Politics and the Scholars 125
20 New Rules for the New World 131
21 The Other Main Constituencies, 1919-1939 136
22 Small Fry and Associations 142
23 Selection, 1919-1939 149
24 Success? 155
25 Germany 161
26 The Second World War 166
27 Play Resumed Again 177
28 End of Empire 185
Pt. IV Post-Imperial World 191
29 South African Twilight 193
30 The Williams Years 197
31 Why No President? 205
32 The Germans Again 212
33 Women at Last 217
34 The Brotherhood 224
35 Priorities 230
36 Whom is the Fight Against? 238
37 Life after Williams 245
38 The South African War 252
39 A Passage from India 260
40 The Developing World 266
41 Clinton and After 276
42 The Old Commonwealth 285
43 South Africa Comes in from the Cold 293
44 The European Experiment 300
Pt. V Present and Future 305
45 Careers 307
46 New Worlds 314
47 Mandela-Rhodes 321
Epilogue 329
App. I Rhodes's Will 335
App. II Trustees and Principal Officers of the Rhodes Trust 348
Notes 351
Bibliographical Note 369
Index 372
KiplingCollector
Posted February 9, 2009
In LEGACY, Philip Ziegler has given a thoughtful review to the grandaddy of all international scholarships, the one which inspired the Marshall, the Fulbright, the Keasbey, the Clare, the Henry, and now the Gates Scholarships in its train, namely the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford conceived by British and South African empire builder Cecil Rhodes. Its administration at Oxford after Rhodes' death by his trustees, proved a challenge, to integrate Americans, South Africans, Germans (with interruption by World War One), Australians and others into the individual, and individually picky, colleges of Oxford, and the vision of the Oxford-burnished graduates going back to create a world-wide federation of like-minded imperialists has disappeared with the late British Empire which inspired Rhodes' dream. Nevertheless, the program has, all in all, been a success, both in its own right in training leaders for those contributing nations, and in providing a template for similar programs of international exchange at the collegiate level from other countries. Although blessed by the Rhodes Trust, this is a "warts and all" review which seems both comprehensive and fair-minded.<BR/>KiplingCollector
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Overview
To be chosen as a Rhodes Scholar is to join the company of a highly select group: former scholars include presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors, archbishops, authors, judges, and other important figures. Over 7,000 individuals have received the world’s most prestigious scholarship in the century since Cecil John Rhodes, the British-born founder of the De Beers diamond company, established through his will the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes scholarships. This fascinating history traces the evolution of the Trust and ...