English Education,1789-1902

Between 1789 and 1902 the direction of education in England had passed from the Church to the State. This book is a history of that change which culminated in the Education Act of 1902, passed, ironically enough, by a Conservative Government in the face of bitter Radical and Liberal opposition. For it was the Radicals who, in the early part of the nineteenth century, were preaching the doctrine of 'useful knowledge'. Hitherto, religion had been the leading aim of English education and the u...