The Crisis of the Meritocracy

Before the Second World War, only about 20% of the population went to secondary school and barely 2% to university; today everyone goes to secondary school and half of all young people go to university. How did we get here from there?

The Crisis of the Meritocracy answers this question not by looking to politicians and educational reforms, but to the revolution in attitudes and expectations amongst the post-war British public - the rights guaranteed by the welfare state, the hope of a better life for one's children, widespread
upward mobility from manual to non-manual occupations, confidence in the importance of education in a 'learning society' and a 'knowledge economy'.

As a result of these transformations, 'meritocracy' - the idea that a few should be selected to succeed - has been challenged by democracy and its wider understandings of equal opportunity across the life course. At a time when doubts have arisen about whether we need so many students, and amidst
calls for a return to grammar-school selection at 11, the tension between meritocracy and democracy remains vital to understanding why our grandparents, our parents, ourselves and our children have sought and got more and more education - and to what end.


"What gives Mandler's account its power and originality is its refreshingly non-technocratic stress not only on broad social and cultural forces at work... a crisply written, tightly argued and hugely informative Olympian survey in which an incisive but humane historian, who over the years has
written about a wide range of subjects, brings all his talents to bear." -- David Kynaston, Times Literary Supplement

"This book is...like a well-prepared restaurant meal with each tasty ingredient carefully balanced by the others...In many respects, this is the book we have been waiting for and we should read Mandler's conclusions not as some dusty historical reflections but as a lesson on the stresses and strains
that we are likely to face on the hopefully continuing � but not inevitable � journey of educational progress. We could not have a better guide." -- Nick Hillman, Higher Education Policy Institution

"This is a fascinating book... It is unusually wide in its scope, impressive in its scholarship and covers a lot of detail chronicling the expansion of more and more education over the last 75 years. It is highly recommended." -- Education Journal

"In this brilliant book, Mandler recasts the history of democracy in post-war Britain by placing the social and cultural forces that drove the relentless expansion of mass education centre-stage. It is a refreshingly original tour de force that will challenge many preconceptions." -- Jon Lawrence,
author of Me, Me, Me? The Search for Community in Post-war England

"Fascinating and convincing: contemporary history at its best. Mandler's account of the 'race between education and democracy' shows how modern British education is the product of broad social change rather than political fights and ideology. This makes it hugely relevant to anyone interested in
policy. With luck, it may even improve our policymaking." -- Alison Wolf, author of Does Education Matter? Myths About Education and Economic Growth