The Crisis of the Meritocracy

Peter Mandler is an historian of modern Britain who teaches at Cambridge University; his books cover a range of social, cultural, political, and intellectual history subjects relating to Britain since the 18th century and also to the history of the social sciences in the wider Anglophone world. Between 2012 and 2016 he was President of the Royal Historical Society and from 2020 he serves as President of the Historical Association. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was born and raised in the USA but has spent most of his adult life in the UK; he is married to Ruth Ehrlich, a professional violinist, and has two grown-up children, who are also sadly split between the US and the UK.

• List of Abbreviations 1: Meritocracy vs. Democracy 2: Before the Butler Act 3: The Crisis of the Meritocracy 4: The Transition to Comprehensive Education 5: The Robbins Principle 6: Where Have All the Students Gone? 7: The Transition to Mass Education 8: The Swing Away from Science 9: Effectively Maintained Inequality Epilogue: More and More Education Appendix Acknowledgements Bibliography

... a very important book... The clarity of Mandler's writing and historical perspective mediates a subject dominated by sociological and economic interpretation, resulting in a major, indeed fundamental, contribution to understanding modern British society.