Of all books relating to education, the most frequently discussed must surely be Plato's Republic. Of all educational institutions, the nineteenth-century English public school has a strong claim to be considered the most widely known, admired and attacked. This book examines the impact and influence of these two great sources of darkness and light in twentieth-century England. It does so by focusing upon the theme that was central to both: education for leadership. It shows how the classic ‘English tradition’ of the nineteenth century has been revised and adapted in various ways in twentieth-century secondary education. And it argues that the decline of this tradition especially in the last thirty years has given way not to social equality, but to an individualistic, competitive materialism – a trend that is the antithesis of what the public schools and indeed the modern comprehensives were meant to stand for.

This book is essentially a study in the social history of education. As should be the case with all educational history, it is about the relationships between education and the many other dimensions of social change; ideas, ideology, culture, religion, science, technology, industry, labour. It stresses continuity, but seeks to illuminate change, novelty, and decay. The book is designed to be suitable for students of education, history and contemporary society, and also offers new research perspectives for advanced students and researchers.

The current work is the second in what I like to see as a trilogy of books concerned with the ‘tripartite’ dimensions of English secondary education in the twentieth century.