Wilfred Carr is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Sheffield, UK.

• 1. Introduction: Understanding Education2. The Birth of Reason and the Origins of Education3. Antiquity: The Formation of the Western Educational Tradition4. Christianity: The Decline and Revival of the Western Educational Tradition5. The Enlightenment and the Emergence of Progressive Education6. Education and State Schooling7. Democracy and Education8. Education Today: The Demise of the Western Educational TraditionConclusion: Reclaiming Education for Today

"This beautifully written book provides a compelling account of why the main aim of western education is to cultivate the capacity to reason, and how the meaning and educational importance of this aim has changed over time in response to changing historical conditions. Wilfred Carr makes a strong case for the need to revive and reclaim this educational aim in the social and political climate that exists today.”Fazal Rizvi, Emeritus Professor, University of Melbourne Australia"This book explains how cultivating our ability to reason became the unique purpose of Western education and how this purpose has been eroded by the recent establishment of mass schooling and the pervasive character of neoliberalism. Carr concisely outlines the history of this conception of education and draws on a range of historically important educational philosophies to argue that there is the urgent need for educators to reclaim it for today."Professor Eleanore Hargreaves, Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK