(no subject)
So the long hike up the looming, treacherous mountain of Oxford entry has begun. And the first step was pretty easy actually! The following is the only thing that Oxford will see before they meet me so it's very very important. Read and comment please! Anything anyone can think of to add? And appologies in advance for the length ;) That really is how long it should be!
Personal Statement - Gabriel Lambert AJM
History has always appealed to me because of the huge range of possible interpretations - I enjoy History most when I am either challenged in my preconceptions or when I discover a fresh outlook on a particular period, either through personal reading or class discussion. The idea that there are infinite answers to some of the major questions of history fascinates me and I believe that the past cries out for just as much investigation as the present.
Just such an example is my recent research into Sir Robert Peel’s time in opposition - reading Donald Read’s Peel and the Victorians posed a challenge to the more conventional arguments of Norman Gash - to what extent did the publication of Peel’s speeches by the popular press convince the electorate that he could provide the strong government the country needed? This was a very exciting idea for me, not only because it contained an argument that I had never even considered, but because I was given the opportunity to read original copies of The Times - the smell, texture, and of course, the content of contemporary documents has been thrilling.
I also used Philippe Paul, comte de Ségur’s accounts of the 1812 Napoleonic campaign in Russia to write my prize-winning essay debating the reasons for the failure of la Grand Armée - I was pleasantly surprised to find a non-partisan and excruciatingly graphic account which provided an excellent companion to Adam Zamoyski’s 1812 - Napoleon’s fatal march on Moscow.
Wider historical reading forms a large part of my reading life and I have endeavoured to broaden my range on top of the Peel work. Some of my recent reads include The Cheese and Worms by Carlo Ginzburg, Stalingrad and Berlin by Antony Beevor, Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared M. Diamond, John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, The Killing of History by Keith Windschuttle and currently, I am ploughing through The Shield of Achilles by Philip Bobbitt. I also have subscriptions to History Today and the New Statesman and read both voraciously.
I believe that you can only derive as much pleasure from life as you are willing to put in - as a result I fill my hours with a great variety of activities. I have coxed for four years and managed to hold the 1st VIII position for almost a year, until growth and therefore weight caught up with me. I then coxed and coached the 3rd VIII for the remaining three weeks before National School’s Regatta and managed to win silver there. I have also coxed for several men’s crews, notably the Thames/Tideway Sculler’s composite B8 that won Veteran’s Henley this year.
I have been involved in many dramatic productions, the most pertinent of these being my direction of Joe Orton’s A Ruffian on the Stair for which I won the club drama competition; starring in Molière’s Tartuffe as Tartuffe by for which I won the junior acting prize; and recently as Spooner in No Man’s Land by Harold Pinter.
During my junior years I ran the Junior Classics Society and was on the committee of, and spoke at, the Junior Historical Society. I am currently on the committee of the Senior Historical Society and will speak about my Peel research next term.
Recently, I completed my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Expedition in the Yorkshire Dales and will be completing my skill and service (drama and helping run the administration for the bronze award) over the course of this year.
Short gap year paragraph forthcoming pending feedback from emails.
Hope you enjoyed that! (if you got this far well done!)