This book skilfully intertwines three main themes in the growth and expression of management. The essential component to understanding of context is established through a stark exposition of the conditions of society in the 18th and 19th centuries. From these is drawn the, until now, unrecognised precursor of major change: the establishment of mass education. This was achieved through the wayward genius of the charismatic teacher Joseph Lancaster who, despite his struggles with the Church and his own foibles, was able through his attractively cheap plan and dominant guiding idea to bring mass...