The Cambridge Union Society, commonly referred to as simply "the Cambridge Union" or "the Union," is a debating society in Cambridge, England and the largest society at the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1815, the Union is the oldest student debate society in Britain and has developed a worldwide reputation as a noted symbol of free speech and open debate. Additionally, the Cambridge Union has served as a model for the subsequent foundation of similar societies at several other prominent universities, including the Oxford Union and the Yale Political Union. The Union is a private society, and is distinct from the Cambridge University Students' Union.
The Union has a long and distinguished history of hosting leading state and international political and other figures in its chamber, from Presidents to Prime Ministers and Oscar winners to Olympic legends. Over its history, these have included the Dalai Lama, President Ronald Reagan, Professor Germaine Greer, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Clint Eastwood. Recent speakers include academic Richard Dawkins, former British Prime Minister John Major, former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf, comedian Dara Ó Briain, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, Olympic legend Lord Coe, violinist and songwriter Diana Yukawa, actor Sir Ian McKellen and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Read more about Cambridge Union Society: History of The Society, Membership of The Society, Events of The Society, The Society’s Leadership, Constitution, Recordings
Famous quotes containing the words cambridge, union and/or society:
“If we help an educated man’s daughter to go to Cambridge are we not forcing her to think not about education but about war?—not how she can learn, but how she can fight in order that she might win the same advantages as her brothers?”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves,—the union between themselves and the State,—and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting the State?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents.... It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community.... It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)