In recent years the study of the history of education has flourished and expanded. It has moved from being a specialist interest to one that concerns economic and social historians, who see that education has played a central part in the discussion of industrial development and the formation of the social structure. In this study, revised and updated throughout, Dr. Sanderson reviews the history of education in the nineteenth century and the academic debates surrounding it. He examines the discussion surrounding literacy, its trends and significance in the creation of an industrial labor...

For many years, British scientific and technical education has been regarded as inadequate and poor in comparison to competing countries. The deficiencies of the British education system and its failure to support and promote vocational education and training to create "human capital" in the labor force have been seen as a large factor in Britain's economic decline since the 1870s. Michael Sanderson examines education's supposed part--or not--in this decline and focuses on those issues where education has been seen to fail the needs of the economy.