Victorian Class Conflict?

John T Smith is senior lecturer in education at the University of Hull. He has written numerous articles on nineteenth century education and two books, "Methodism & Education, 18491902" (Clarendon, Oxford, 1998) and "The History of Lady Lumley's Foundation" (LLEF, Pickering, 1990).

• 'A Regeneration of the Parish': Wellsprings of Clergy Interest in Elementary Schooling; 'The Real Milch-cow': The Clergyman's Role in the Elementary Schools; 'The Parson's Fag': The Schoolteacher as the Servant of the Church in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century; Merely a Growing Dilemma of Etiquette?: The Deepening Gulf Between the Victorian Clergyman and Victorian Schoolteacher; 'Educating our Masters': The Educational Background of Clergyman and Schoolteacher; 'The Unlucky Jar': The Straining of Relationships Between Clergymen and Schoolteachers in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century; 'An Enemy Within': The Clergymen and the Board Schools, 1870-1902; 'The Old Gods Crumble...'; Index.

Smith addresses the rise of schoolteachers as professionals in the Victorian era and, as a function of that rise, their often-conflictual relationship with Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan clergy. Venturing beyond the traditional treatment of Anglican themes, the book carefully documents how the financial and educational status of teachers improved while that of clergy diminished. Utilising a range of hitherto neglected sources of information, Smith provides a useful case study of the rise of one professional class. Recommended". -- Choice