Moving from a specialist interest in recent years, the study of the history of education has flourished and expanded. Focusing on literacy, this study reviews the history of education in the nineteenth century and the academic debates surrounding it.
This book examines school acts in the long nineteenth century, traditionally considered as milestones or landmarks in the process of achieving universal education. Guided by a strong interest in social, cultural, and economic history, the case studies featured in the book rethink the actual value, the impact, and the ostensible purpose of school acts. The thirteen national case studies focus on the manner in which school acts were embedded in their particular historical contexts, offering a comprehensive and multidisciplinary overview of school acts and the role they played in the rise of mass schooling. Drawing together research from countries across the West, the editors and contributors analyse why these acts were passed, as well as their content and impact. This seminal collection will appeal to students and scholars of school acts and the history of mass schooling. Chapter 9 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com
The act was intensely controversial because it left the church schools in a commanding position in many rural areas, much to the dismay of Liberal nonconformists whose aim was the disestablishment of the Church of England.
Acknowledgements General Editor's Preface Introduction The Standard of living Debate Were the Working Classes Revolutionary? Trade Unions Laissez-Faire and State Intervention: The Economy Laissez-Faire and State Intervention: Social Management Education Agriculture 1760-1900 Railways A New Age? Depression and Decline? The British Economy 1870-1900 The New Jerusalem? The Impact of Industrialisation.