Editing Peterhouse, Cambridge (section)

===Modern day===
In the 1980s Peterhouse acquired an association with [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politics. [[Maurice Cowling]] and [[Roger Scruton]] were both influential fellows of the College and are sometimes described as key figures in the so-called [[Peterhouse school of history|"Peterhouse right"]] – an intellectual movement linked to [[conservativism|philosophical conservativism]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/sep/10/features11.g27|title=Peterhouse blues|date=10 September 1999|access-date=15 June 2009 | newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> While often associated with [[Thatcherite]] politics (notably, the Conservative politicians [[Michael Portillo]] and [[Michael Howard]] both studied at Peterhouse), the extent to which [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s economic liberalism was admired within the movement was limited. During this period, which coincided with the mastership of [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]], the college endured a period of significant conflict among the fellowship, particularly between Trevor-Roper and Cowling.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article558995.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513234955/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article558995.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 May 2011|title=Maurice Cowling Obituary|newspaper=The Times|access-date=8 September 2008 | location=London | date=26 August 2005}}</ref>

Trevor-Roper feuded constantly with Cowling and his allies, while launching a series of administrative reforms. Women were admitted in 1983 at his urging. The British journalist [[Neal Ascherson]] summarised the quarrel between Cowling and Trevor-Roper as:<blockquote>Lord Dacre, far from being a romantic Tory ultra, turned out to be an anti-clerical Whig with a preference for free speech over superstition. He did not find it normal that fellows should wear mourning on the anniversary of General Franco's death, attend parties in SS uniform or insult black and Jewish guests at high table. For the next seven years, Trevor-Roper battled to suppress the insurgency of the Cowling clique ("a strong mind trapped in its own glutinous frustrations"), and to bring the college back to a condition in which students might actually want to go there. Neither side won this struggle, which soon became a campaign to drive Trevor-Roper out of the college by grotesque rudeness and insubordination.<ref name="Ascherson">{{cite magazine
  | last =  Ascherson
  | first = Neal
  | title = The Liquidator
  | magazine = London Review of Books
  | date= 19 August 2010 | url = http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n16/neal-ascherson/liquidator
  | access-date = 5 January 2016}}</ref></blockquote> In a review of Adam Sisman's 2010 biography of Trevor-Roper, the ''Economist'' wrote that picture of Peterhouse in the 1980s was "startling", stating the college had become under Cowling's influence a sort of right-wing "lunatic asylum", who were determined to sabotage Trevor-Roper's reforms.<ref>{{cite news
  | title = Not so ropey
  | newspaper = The Economist
  | date= 22 July 2010 | url = http://www.economist.com/node/16636401
  | access-date = 5 January 2016}}</ref> In 1987 Trevor-Roper retired complaining of "seven wasted years."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZBpjG9HXJsC |title=An Honourable Englishman: The Life of Hugh Trevor-Roper |first=Adam |last=Sisman  |publisher=Random House |year=2011 |isbn=9780679604730 |page=562}}</ref>

Peterhouse may have been one of the sources of inspiration for [[Tom Sharpe]]'s ''[[Porterhouse Blue]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sharpe|first=Tom|url=https://www.amazon.com/Porterhouse-Blue-Sharpe-January-2002/dp/B00I61HKG2|title=[Porterhouse Blue]|date=2002-01-01|publisher=Arrow Books/Random House}}</ref>

In the 21st century Peterhouse has established a more modern and welcoming reputation.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}