Overview

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.

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9781350254633

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Reviews

Underlining the complexities of party policies and the need to drill down beneath ideology, this interesting, topical and very up-to-date study raises important points about educational policy, Conservative governments and the contested politics of modernisation. Deserves widespread attention. * Jeremy Black, Emeritus Professor at University of Exeter and Author of A History of Britain: 1945 to Brexit, UK * A brilliant and meticulous expose of the expediency shown by politicians when faced with the dilemma at the heart of secondary education: educationally, selection is the engine of social mobility, but, electorally, it creates a resentful majority who've missed out. * Alan Smithers, Director of Centre for Education and Employment Research, University of Buckingham, UK *

Underlining the complexities of party policies and the need to drill down beneath ideology, this interesting, topical and very up-to-date study raises important points about educational policy, Conservative governments and the contested politics of modernisation. Deserves widespread attention. * Jeremy Black, Emeritus Professor at University of Exeter and Author of A History of Britain: 1945 to Brexit, UK * A brilliant and meticulous exposé of the expediency shown by politicians when faced with the dilemma at the heart of secondary education: educationally, selection is the engine of social mobility, but, electorally, it creates a resentful majority who’ve missed out. * Alan Smithers, Director of Centre for Education and Employment Research, University of Buckingham, UK *

Author Information

Piers Legh teaches 'British Politics since 1945' at the University of Manchester, UK. He also completed his PhD on this subject there in 2011.

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