Engines of Privilege

Thoroughly researched and written with such calm authority, yet makes you want to scream with righteous indignation – John O’Farrell
Their tone is calm and evidence-based, not agitprop … They have made up my mind. I now feel clear not just that change is urgently needed, but that options for change are more varied, imaginative and realistic than I’d dared imagine – Maggie Fergusson * Tablet *
Fascinating – Alex Renton * Spectator *
‘[A] powerful attack on private schools as engines of privilege … a forensic examination of what the authors call “Britain’s private school problem” … They start strong … leaving you in no doubt about the path from private schooling to the elite … This book does a fine job of explaining and damning Britain’s private school problem – Hugo Rifkind * The Times *
An excoriating account of the inequalities perpetuated by Britain’s love affair with private schools * The Times *
A passionate attack on private schools … Kynaston’s flair for anecdotes shines through … Fascinating – Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *
Timely * Guardian *
The historical background to our arguments over state and private education today is the most intriguing part of Engines of Privilege … imbued with Kynaston’s fascination with the arguments and mores of post-war Britain – Anne McElvoy * Evening Standard *
Francis Green and David Kynaston say loud and clear that Britain’s private schools are a social problem … This book provides warnings and lessons of what doesn’t work and ideas of what policies could work to dismantle these ‘engines of privilege’ * Socialist Worker *
A fresh dissection of what [Kynaston and Green] deem “Britain’s private school problem” … We can expect the manifesto-writers at the next general election to pass magpie-like over these chapters * Financial Times *
[A] forensic and damning examination of … “Britain’s private school problem” * The Week *
David Kynaston is one of the great chroniclers of our modern story … Every paragraph contains some glittering nugget – Praise for David Kynaston’s ‘Modernity Britain’ * Sunday Times *
An exemplary narrative history, with the archives plundered judiciously and plenty of focus on people and their quirks … Fascinating – Praise for ‘Till Time’s Last Sand’ * The Times *
This is the work of a scholar with a gift for illuminating every square inch of each enormous canvas he chooses to paint … Kynaston brings characters large and small to life – Praise for ‘Till Time’s Last Sand’ * Literary Review *
A historian of peerless sensitivity and curiosity about the lives of individuals – Praise for ‘Modernity Britain’ * Financial Times *

Francis Green is Professor of Work and Education Economics at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, UK. He is the author of ten books and 150 papers, and is a recognised authority on the economic and social effects of private schooling in the past and present. He works frequently as an advisor to the OECD, the European Union and the World Bank, as well as to the UK government.

David Kynaston has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written twenty books, including on the City of London and cricket, as well as a series aiming to cover the history of post-war Britain (1945–79), ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’. He is currently an honorary professor at Kingston University.

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