Schooling in England, 1660 to 1850– Part I: introduction ‘a noiseless revolution’ and Part II: the gazetteer of English schools, by John Cannon

Howlett, John

Abstract

The subtitle of this work – the ‘noiseless revolution’ – comes from the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) who argued that many of the more fundamental cultural revolutions in taste, manners and mores were distant from the processes and outcomes of what historians traditionally considered to be ‘important’ and worthwhile events. For Macaulay, the Whig historian par excellence, such acknowledgement was enough – his refusal to speak further is suggestive perhaps of where he felt the true significance of the discipline lay and he was to remain a committed ‘high’ political historian. However, with the emergence of the Annales school in the 1960s, understanding the ‘mighty and various organization which lies deep below’ (Macaulay, 1828, quoted in Part I, p. 1) became an urgent priority as historians were emboldened in rejecting such histoire événementielle, preferring to focus on the continuities of both lived experience and social structure. It was perhaps no coincidence that the history of education – to that point itself a comparatively silent academic discipline – emerged at this time as concerns over the development of mass literacy, the construction of social behaviours, modes of discipline and school curricula became areas ripe for investigation under this new mode and aspect of thinking.

Citation

Howlett, J. (2018). Schooling in England, 1660 to 1850– Part I: introduction ‘a noiseless revolution’ and Part II: the gazetteer of English schools, by John Cannon. History of Education, 47(3), 436-438. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760x.2017.1356381

• Journal Article Type: Book Review
• Online Publication Date: Aug 21, 2017
• Publication Date: May 4, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jun 7, 2023
• Journal: History of Education
• Print ISSN: 0046-760X
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-5130
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 436-438
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760x.2017.1356381
• Keywords: History and Philosophy of Science; Education
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=thed20