"It is an impressive study. Its thoroughness and level of detail justly serves the broad scope of the project. As a rich source of information, it will surely become the new definitive work on eighteenth-century Oxford. As well as this, it provides an important perspective on the role and place of the university in the Enlightenment and is a fascinating study of church and state in Hanoverian Britain." -- Daniel Rignall, Proceedings Of The Wesley Historical Society Nigel Aston of the University of Oxford has done a great service to his university by taking a deep dive into every aspect of it during the 18th century. The book is broadly divided into three sections: Intellectual Presence, Institutional Presence and Interactions; and Cultural Constructions, Connections, and Tensions. Each of the 12 chapters contains copious footnotes, some 3,000 in total; this is in addition to a bibliography that runs to some 90 pages! Even a lengthy review could hardly do justice to such a sweeping and thoroughly researched book.-- Cliff Cunningham, Sun News Austin"Dr Aston's work does a magnificent job of describing the political, intellectual, and social milieu in which John and Charles Wesley were formed, and in which the 'first rise' of Methodism took place.

" -- Martin Wellings, Wesley and Methodist Studies"Dr Aston is to be warmly congratulated for making such a thorough, persuasive, and significant contribution to the history not only of the University of Oxford, but to the intellectual, cultural, and social life of Britain in the long eighteenth century. Enlightened Oxford will be an invaluable resource and stimulus for students and scholars of the period for many years to come." -- Martin Wellings, The Journal of Religious History, Literature & Culture"This is indeed a fine book." -- Ian Doolittle, Oxoniensia.