Establishment and Meritocracy by Peter Hennessy

Establishment and Meritocracy by Peter Hennessy

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Summary

The interlocking themes of Establishment and Meritocracy are a crucial part of the intellectual compost that made Hennessy's generation of postwar Britons. The Establishment and the concept of a growing and eventually self-propelling meritocracy were always at odds, and the policies that brought it about dramatically altered British society.

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Establishment and Meritocracy by Peter Hennessy

Like so many of the postwar generation in Britain, Peter Hennessy climbed the ladders of opportunity set up by the 1944 Education Act designed to encourage a more meritocratic society. In this highly personal book, Hennessy examines the rise of meritocracy as a concept and the persistence of the shadowy notion of an establishment in Britain's institutions of state. He asks whether these elusive concepts still have any power to explain British society, and why they continue to fascinate us. To what extent are the ideas of meritocracy and the establishment simply imagined? And if a meritocracy rose in the years following 1945, has it now stalled? With its penetrating examination of the British school system and postwar trends, Establishment and Meritocracy is an important resource for those concerned about the link between education and later success, both for individuals and their societies.
Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Harvard (where he was a Kennedy Scholar 1971-72), Hennessy went on to spend 20 years in journalism. He is a Fellow of the British Academy. The author of several major works of contemporary British history including The Secret State, The Prime Minister, Never Again: Britain 1945-1951 and Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties, Hennessy nows sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781908323774
ISBN 10 1908323779
Title Establishment and Meritocracy
Author Peter Hennessy
Series Haus Curiosities
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Haus Publishing
Year published 2014-10-01
Number of pages 96
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.