The book tells the untold story of the Conservative Party's involvement in terms of stance and policy in the destruction of selective state education from 1945 up to the present day. Close consideration is paid to their attitudes and prejudices towards education, both in power and in opposition. Legh examines the Party's responses to the pressure for comprehensive schooling and egalitarianism from the Labour Party and the British left. In doing so, Legh defies current historiography to demonstrate that the Party were not passive actors in the advancement of comprehensive schooling. The lively narrative is moved along by the author's critical examination of the Education Ministers throughout this period: Florence Horsbrugh and David Eccles serving under Churchill and Eden and also Quintin Hogg and Geoffrey Lloyd under Macmillan, as well as Edward Boyle and Margaret Thatcher under Edward Heath. Legh's detailed research utilises a range of government documents, personal papers, parliamentary debates and newspapers to provide this crucial re-assessment of the Conservative Party and selective education, and in doing so questions over-simplistic generalisations about wholescale support for selective education policy. It reveals instead questioning, compromises and disagreements within the Party and its political and ideological allies. The result is a stimulating revival of existing scholarship which will be of interest to scholars of British education and politics.

In a remarkable decade of public investment in higher education, some 200 new university campuses were established worldwide between 1961 and 1970. This volume offers a comparative and connective global history of these institutions, illustrating how their establishment, intellectual output and pedagogical experimentation sheds light on the social and cultural topography of the long 1960s. With an impressive geographic coverage - using case studies from Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia - the book explores how these universities have influenced academic disciplines and pioneered new types of teaching, architectural design and student experience. From educational reform in West Germany to the establishment of new institutions with progressive, interdisciplinary curricula in the Commonwealth, the illuminating case studies of this volume demonstrate how these universities shared in a common cause: the embodiment of 'utopian' ideals of living, learning and governance. At a time when the role of higher education is fiercely debated, Utopian Universities is a timely and considered intervention that offers a wide-ranging, historical dimension to contemporary predicaments.

This book explores the development of education in France and England from the French Revolution to the outbreak of World War II. The author uses social equality as a framework to compare and contrast the educational systems of both countries and to emphasise the distinctive ideological legacies at the heart of both systems. The author analyses how the French Revolution prompted the emergence of an egalitarian ideology in education that in turn was crucial for propagating the values of equality, patriotism and unity. In tandem, the volume discusses the equally dramatic consequences of the Industrial Revolution for English society: while England led the world by 1800 in trade, commerce and industry, a strict form of liberalism and minimal state intervention impeded the reduction of educational inequality. This pioneering book will be of interest to students and scholars of educational equality as well as the history of education in France and England.

The struggle between the main political parties has been reduced to an unpopularity contest, in which voters hold their noses and sigh as they trudge to the polls. Peter Hitchens explains how and why British politics has sunk to this dreary level - the takeover of the parties and the media by conventional left-wing dogmas which then call themselves 'the centre ground'. The Tory party under David Cameron has become a pale-blue twin of New Labour, offering change without alteration. Hitchens, a former Lobby reporter, examines and mocks the flock mentality of most Westminster journalists, explains how unattributable lunches guide coverage and why so many reporters - once slavish admirers of Labour - now follow the Tory line. This updated edition of Hitchens's The Broken Compass (2009) features a brand new introduction. In an excoriating analysis, Hitchens examines the Tory Party's record in government and opposition, dismissing it as a failure on all fronts but one - the ability to win office without principle. The one thing it certainly isn't is conservative.

Presenting a concise history of British universities and their place in society over eight centuries, this book gives an analysis of the university problems and policies as seen in the light of that history. It explains how the modern university system has developed since the Victorian era, giving attention to changes in policy since the WWII.

Who are those at the bottom of society? There has been much discussion in recent years, on both Left and Right, about the existence of an alleged 'underclass' in both Britain and the USA. It has been claimed this group lives outside the mainstream of society, is characterised by crime, suffers from long-term unemployment and single parenthood, and is alienated from its core values. In Underclass: A History of the Excluded, 1880-2000 John Welshman shows that there have always been concerns about an 'underclass', whether constructed as the 'social residuum' of the 1880s, the 'problem family' of the 1950s or the 'cycle of deprivation' of the 1970s. There are marked differences between these concepts, but also striking continuities. Indeed a concern with an 'underclass' has is many ways been as long as an interest in poverty itself. This book is the first to look systematically at the question, providing new insights on contemporary debates about behaviour, poverty and welfare reform. In a speech in 2006, Tony Blair signalled a major push on social exclusion. He aimed to show the Government's determination to tackle 'a hard core underclass' estimated at 1 m people. The focus in Whitehall had moved to what were termed 'high-risk, high-harm and high-cost families', and to children in care, teenage mothers, and people with mental health problems on benefit. In all of this, the rhetoric of a 'cycle of deprivation', and of inter-generational continuities, was ever-present, and it is those continuities that this book seeks to explore.

From Tony Blair to Tonypandy, the BBC to the Bank of England, The Oxford Companion to 20th Century British Politics is an essential source of information on the full range of British political life during the last 100 years. In this comprehensive and authoritative guide, more than 100 contributors--journalists, scholars, former cabinet secretaries, and other specialists--provide more than 3,000 entries on a wide variety of subjects. Organized alphabetically, the entries cover the important ideas, institutions, people and events that have defined modern British politics. The scope of the Companion is necessarily wide, moving from formal politics to the political culture of films, television, and the media, and from domestic economic debates to Britain's changing role on the world stage. Major conflicts and economic events, slogans and sayings, clubs, charities, and societies--the complete world of British politics is captured in this unique reference source. The Companion also includes a wealth ofadditional,resources: a list of office holders from 1900 to the present day, a table of election results up to and including the 2001 elections, the dates of ministries, and a topical table of contents.

From grassroots campaigns and activism to top-down initiatives for and against curricular reform, this open access book investigates the movement to integrate LGBTQ+ history into high school history courses in the USA. Stacie Brensilver Berman charts the development of the movement from the founding of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the passing of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act in California, to the resurgence of conservative thought after the 2016 election. Based on 13 interviews with high school teachers about integrating LGBTQ+ history in their classes, the author reveals the challenges inherent to K-12 curricular reform amid the reluctance of a conservative nation and many of its school systems to consider an alternative vision. The book offers the first detailed portrait of a prophetic minority of educators and activists championing a more inclusive and accurate vision of American history. The book includes a Foreword written by Blanche Wiesen Cook, Distinguished Professor of History and Women's Studies at the City University of New York, USA, and Robert Cohen, Professor of Social Studies, Education, at New York University, USA. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

The main enemy of conservatism in Britain is the Conservative Party.

A leading African-American historian of race in America exposes the uncomfortable truths about race, slavery and the American academy, revealing that our leading universities, dependent on human bondage, became breeding grounds for the racist ideas that sustained it.