It has been suggested that, by the end of the nineteenth century, a gentleman might be defined as one who had been to public school or who successfully concealed the has that he had not.
Trevor May examines the development of the Victorian and Edwardian public school, and the paradox of an institution that in the century that saw Britain established as 'the workshop of the world', turned out not industrialists, but gentlemen. He covers the defining characteristics of public schools, their slowly evolving curriculum, attempts to reform the schools, and introduces the notable headmasters of both ancient and new foundations.
Immerse yourself in the spartan, and often brutal, life of a schoolboy, and discovery how he lived, both at the mercy of his teachers and of his fellow students.
Contents:
Introduction
Public Schools Before Arnold
The Reform and Growth of Public Schools
Teaching and Learning
The Life of the Public Schoolboy
Public Schools in an Imperial Age
Public Schools and their Wider World
Further Reading
Index
