The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World
The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?

In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system.

Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.
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The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World
The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?

In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system.

Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.
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The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

by Adrian Wooldridge
The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

by Adrian Wooldridge

Hardcover

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Overview

The Times (UK) book of the year! Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?

In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities, and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocratic system.

Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781510768611
Publisher: Skyhorse
Publication date: 07/13/2021
Pages: 504
Sales rank: 651,919
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Adrian Wooldridge is the political editor and a columnist at the Economist. He earned a doctorate in history from Oxford University, where he was a Fellow of All Souls College. He is the author of ten previous books, including Capitalism in America co-written with Alan Greenspan and seven co-written with John Micklethwait: The Wake-Up Call, The Witch Doctors, A Future Perfect, The Company, The Right Nation, God is Back, and The Fourth Revolution.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Revolutionary Idea 1

Part 1 Priority, Degree and Place

1 Homo hierarchicus 25

2 Family Power 35

3 Nepotism, Patronage, Venality 47

Part 2 Meritocracy before Modernity

4 Plato and the Philosopher Kings 59

5 China and the Examination State 72

6 The Chosen People 86

7 The Golden Ladder 99

Part 3 The Rise of the Meritocracy

8 Europe and the Career Open to Talent 117

9 Britain and the Intellectual Aristocracy 144

10 The United States and the Republic of Merit 175

Part 4 The March of the Meritocrats

11 The Measurement of Merit 205

12 The Meritocratic Revolution 234

13 Girly Swots 256

Part 5 The Crisis of the Meritocracy

14 Against Meritocracy: The Revolt on the Left 279

15 The Corruption of the Meritocracy 306

16 Against Meritocracy: The Revolt on the Right 329

17 Asia Rediscovers Meritocracy 350

Conclusion: Renewing Meritocracy 367

Acknowledgements 399

Notes 401

Index 445

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