Introduction: Education for Some or Education for All? 1. Culture and the Paradox of Education Systems; 2. Culture and Continuity through Institutional Change; 3. Romancing the Nation: Education and State-Building in 1800; 4. Expanding Educational Access in the Age of Social Realism; 5. Education in the Age of Empire: Globalization, Technological Change and the Race for Supremacy; 6. Cultural Echos of the Past in Contemporary Education Reforms.