ABBREVIATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Abbreviations
| NYT | New York Times |
| PPE | Philosophy, Politics, and Economics |
| TAO | The American Oxonian |
| Univ. | University College, Oxford |
Illustrations
Cecil Rhodes, c. 1894
The Class of 1904
Frank Aydelotte
The High Street, Oxford, c. 1915
J. William Fulbright
Dean Rusk
Walt Whitman Rostow, Philip M. Kaiser, and Gordon A. Craig
Rhodes Scholar Cartoon
A Yank at Oxford Byron “Whizzer” White Stansfield Turner and Parents Oxford Basketball Team, 1954 Harry S. Truman and Rhodes Scholars Kris Kristofferson John Edgar Wideman Bill Bradley The Class of 1968 Local Boy Makes Good Rhodes Scholars Revisit Oxford, 1978 The Billingtons and the Royal Family
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As is true for many books, this one is the product of a collaboration between the authors and numerous other persons who gave help along the way. Without Robert Riddell and Marion Berghahn, the project would never have commenced. As editor and publisher, they had faith in what at first amounted to only a five-page proposal. John Funari was one of the first Rhodes Scholars whom we contacted. At that time he was editor of The American Oxonian. Up to his untimely death in 1997, John generously gave us his time and his frank opinions; he urged us to avoid doing a puff piece. Sherrill Pinney worked in the office of the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, housed until recently at Pomona College. Again and again she sent us copies of hard-to-find items and responded to our e-mail pleas for help in tracking down elusive details. Chris Rowley, who lives in Oxford but teaches in London, read the entire manuscript and kept us supplied with newspaper clippings and other tidbits that we might otherwise have missed. Frank Sieverts often took time off from his work in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the International Committee of the Red Cross to answer queries, read drafts of chapters, and send us copies of diaries, photographs, and other memorabilia from his Oxford days. As the project neared its conclusion, the manuscript benefitted enormously from the expert copyediting of Sarah Miles.
We also sent large chunks of the manuscript to several other people, and they responded with a host of insightful comments. Susan Bailey, Randy Berholtz, Christopher L. Brown, Peggy Burke, Edward K. Eckert, Sandra F. Joireman, and Bill Stephens helped to ensure that the book is as clear and accurate as possible. Of course, if our text still contains any factual errors or infelicities, we take full responsibility for them.
In a variety of ways St. Bonaventure University provided indispensable aid. Research grants enabled us to pay for travel and sundry other expenses. Theresa Shaffer, as usual, performed marvelous feats in obtaining scarce materials through interlibrary loan. Invaluable research assistance came from several undergraduate and graduate students: Carole Coveney, Donna Bunce, Christopher Heinze, Ursula Herze, Jeffrey Hice, Lisa Milbrand, and Brian Riordan.
Officers of the Rhodes Trust and the Association of American Rhodes Scholars were always generous in providing information and opinions. Thus we extend our gratitude to David Alexander, William J. Barber, Robert G. Edge, Elliot F. Gerson, Sir Anthony Kenny, James O'Toole, and the late Sir Edgar Williams.
Many others likewise have been important for our work. We have had a variety of exchanges with them – via interviews, telephone conversations, e-mail messages, and regular correspondence. They include Outi Aarnio, Mark Agrast, Carl Albert, Caroline Alexander, John Alexander, Thomas H. Allen, James Amoss, Kevin Anderson, James Atlas, Karen Avenoso, Lisa Backus, Joseph Badaracco, Charles R. Bailey, Jennifer Barber, Scott Barker, Thomas A. Bartlett, David P. Billington, Jr., James Billington, Susan Billington Harper, Baruch Blumberg, Paul Blustein, Daniel Boorstin, David Boren, John Brademas, Bill Bradley, Jennifer Bradley, Molly Brennan, Rowland Brucken, Josiah Bunting III, Melissa Burch, Ila Burdette, Benjamin Campbell, Sarah Crosby Campbell, Norman F. Cantor, Richard F. Celeste, Gail E. Christianson, Jocelyn Clapp, Nancy Coiner, Alison Richardson Cowe, Gordon Craig, James Crawford, Stephanie Dangel, Robert Darnton, Guy Davenport, Siddharth Deva, William Devlin, F. Remington Drury, Jr., Ronald Dworkin, Douglas S. Eakeley, James Fallows, Glenn Fine, Erwin Fleissner, Anne Ford, the late J. William Fulbright, James Griffin, Pat Haden, Robyn Hadley, Brian Harrison, Jennifer Haverkamp, Joy Hawthorne, Thomas Herman, Jeffrey T. Hilliker, James Himes, David R. Howlett, Blair Hoxby, Caroline Minter Hoxby, Janice Hudgings, William Hunter, Walter Isaacson, Deborah Jacobs, Mark Janis, Jack B. Justice, Philip M. Kaiser, Nicholas Katzenbach, Shawn Kendrick, Mary Cleary Kiely, Frank H.H. King, Jonathan Kozol, Marvin Krislov, Janelle Larson, Kathy Lendech, Renee Lettow, Michael M. Lewis, William Lewis, Allan Lodge, the late Savoie Lottinville, Krzysztof Lubkiewicz, Richard G. Lugar, Timothy Lupfer, Christine Marciniak, Jason McManus, Ira C. Magaziner, Patricia Magro, Mary Norton McConnell, Ann Jorns Melvin, Hunter Monroe, Alison Muscatine, Gary Noble, Andrew Nussbaum, Joseph Nye, Lee Donne Olvey, Edward Pallesen, Raymond Paretzky, Robert O. Paxton, Zbigniew Pelczynski, Kerry Pierce, Wayne Plasha, Michael Poliakoff, Daniel Porterfield, Lois Quam, Jeffrey Rideout, Donald Rivkin, Bernard Rogers, Andrew Rosenheim, Walt Whitman Rostow, Robert I. Rotberg, Susan Bruns Rowe, Martin Rush, Benet Salway, Gillian Salway, Peter Salway, Wesley Sand, J. Stanley Sanders, Paul Sarbanes, Richard Schaper, Kurt Schmoke, Steven L. Scully, John W. Sears, Virginia Seitz, Jeff Shesol, Sir Maurice Shock, John Simon, Neil Smelser, Howard K. Smith, Amy Staples, Elvis J. Stahr, Leonard Stark, George Stephanopoulos, Daniel Stid, Sara E. Stid, Stuart Swetland, Strobe Talbott, John Templeton, Michael Thaddeus, Lester Thurow, Janine Treves, Calvin Trillin, Stansfield Turner, Albert E. Utton, Terrance Valenzuela, Frank Verhoek, Michele Warman, Michael Warren, Sydney Webber, Jacob Weisberg, Byron White, Harrison White, Edward Wilber, Thomas Williamson, Jr., John Wofford, R. James Woolsey, Philip Zabriskie, and Jack Zoeller.
Our expressions of gratitude would not be complete without mention of the enthusiastic support received from the Schaeper and Cooney families. The person who spent the most time with “the Rhodes book” was our daughter Emily. Like us, she rejoices that it is finished at last.
PREFACE
Each year thirty-two seniors at American universities are awarded Rhodes Scholarships. These students then spend two or three years studying at the University of Oxford in Britain. The scholarships were founded by Cecil Rhodes, the British colonialist and entrepreneur, who died in 1902. This program has become the most famous academic scholarship in the world. It is the “glittering prize,” and the lucky students are “golden boys” (and, since 1976, “golden girls”) who reputedly have a “ticket to success” for the rest of their lives. Over the decades the winners have included scientists such as Edwin Hubble, writers such as Robert Penn Warren, jurists such as Byron White, and politicians such as J. William Fulbright and Bill Clinton. There have also been persons who later gained fame as entertainers, as did Kris Kristofferson.
The genesis of this book lay in Bill Clinton's election to the presidency in November 1992. During the election campaign and through the initial months of Clinton's first term in office, the British and American press were filled with hundreds of stories about Bill Clinton's days in Oxford and about the numerous Rhodes Scholars who served in his administration. This topic was of particular interest to us, for at that time we were serving as directors of the St. Bonaventure University summer program in Oxford. We spent most of each summer observing how our American students adapted to Oxford – and how