Peterhouse School
The Peterhouse school of history, named after the Cambridge college, is interested in the study of 'high politics', which can be taken to mean the interactions between the small group of politicians who have influence on policy at any one time. Their key tenets were a rejection of Whig ideas of the rise of parliamentary democracy and of the importance of ideology – politicians acted according to self-interest and ideological 'beliefs' were just a mask for this. Also important was the focus on interactions within a group rather than biography. A collection of like-minded individuals sharing (for a time) a common institution rather than an official body, the Peterhouse school was influential in the late 1960s and 1970s.
- Historians:
- Cowling, Maurice John
- Themes:
- Political history
