Engines of Privilege
'Thoroughly researched and written with such calm authority, yet makes you want to scream with righteous indignation' John O'Farrell
‘We can expect the manifesto-writers at the next general election to pass magpie-like over these chapters ... The appeal to act is heartfelt’ Financial Times
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Includes a new chapter, 'Moving Ahead?'
Britain’s private, fee-paying schools are institutions where children from affluent families have their privileges further entrenched through a high-quality, richly-resourced education. Engines of Privilege contends that, in a society that mouths the virtues of equality of opportunity, of fairness and of social cohesion, the educational apartheid separating private schools from our state schools deploys our national educational resources unfairly; blocks social mobility; reproduces privilege down the generations; and underpins a damaging democratic deficit in our society.
Francis Green and David Kynaston carefully examine options for change, while drawing on the valuable lessons of history. Clear, vigorous prose is combined with forensic analysis to powerful effect, illuminating the painful contrast between the importance of private schools in British society and the near-absence of serious, policy-shaping debate.
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'An excoriating account of the inequalities perpetuated by Britain’s love affair with private schools' The Times
Francis Green is Professor of Work and Education Economics at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK. He is the author of ten books and 150 papers, and is a recognised authority on the economic and social effects of private schooling in the past and present. He works frequently as an advisor to the the OECD, the European Union and the World Bank, as well as to the UK government.
David Kynaston has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written twenty books, including on the City of London and cricket, as well as a series aiming to cover the history of post-war Britain (1945–79), 'Tales of a New Jerusalem'. He is currently an honorary professor at Kingston University.