During a decade of relative prosperity from the mid-1990s onward, governments across the developed world failed to crack one major issue youth unemployment. Even when economic growth was strong, one young person in 10 in the United Kingdom was neither working nor learning. As the boom ended, the number of young people dropping out after leaving school already acknowledged to be too high - began to rise at an alarming rate. As governments face up to the prospect of a new generation on the dole, this book examines the root causes of the problem.

By holding a light to the lives...

During a decade of relative prosperity from the mid-1990s onward, governments across the developed world failed to crack one major issue - youth unemployment. Even when economic growth was strong, one young person in 10 in the United Kingdom was neither working nor learning. As the boom ended, the number of young people dropping out after leaving school - already acknowledged to be too high - began to rise at an alarming rate. As governments face up to the prospect of a new generation on the dole, this book examines the root causes of the problem.

By holding a light to the...

As recently as 100 years ago British children existed in ways now unthinkable; boys as young as eight worked grueling hours in unlit factories; girls were sold into sexual slavery with dolls still in their grasp; and boys at schools like Rugby and Harrow were brutally trained for their future at the helm of Britain's vast red empire. This book charts the transformation of childhood in the UK from early Victorian disagreements about childrearing to the Scouts' very direct involvement in World War I. Poignant first-hand accounts of poverty and deprivation as well as innocent pleasures carry the...