This is the autobiography of a working-class boy who became an Oxford professor. A.H. Halsey was born in Kentish Town, London, in 1923 - a railway child in a large clan. The family moved in 1926 to Rutland and then to Northamptonshire because the father had been wounded in the Great War. Halsey 'won the scholarship' to Kettering Grammar School in 1933, left school at 16, went into the RAF as a pilot cadet. The metaphor of travel through time and space is maintained throughout this autobiography. The story begins with daily walks past canal boats in Oxford, flashes to the Pacific to Hong Kong and China, and then to a glimpse of death in the John Radcliffe Hospital, promising to explain the whole journey from a council housing estate to a professorial chair at Oxford.

This is the first-ever critical history of sociology in Britain, written by one of the world's leading scholars in the field. Renowned British sociologist, A. H. Halsey, presents a vivid and authoritative picture of the neglect, expansion, fragmentation, and explosion of the discipline during the past century. He is well equipped to write the story, having lived through most of it and having taught and researched in Britain, the USA, and Europe.
The story begins with L.T. Hobhouse's election to the first chair in sociology in London in 1907, but traces earlier origins of the discipline to Scotland and the English provinces. There is a lively account of the nineteenth-century battles between literature and science for the possession of the third culture of social studies, setting the context for a narrative history of rapid expansion in the second half of the twentieth century. LSE had a virtual monopoly before World War II. The educational establishment of Oxford and Cambridge opposed its introduction into the undergraduate curriculum. Only the expansion of sociology to the Scottish, Welsh, provincial, and 'new' universities after the Robbins Report of 1963 brought reluctant acceptance of the subject to Oxford and Cambridge.
The student troubles of 1968 are then described and the subsequent doubts, confrontations, and cuts of the 1970s and 80s. Then, paradoxically by a Conservative Government, there was a new university expansion incorporating polytechnics and other colleges, with a consequent doubling of both staff and students in the 1990s.
Yet the end of the century left sociology riven by intellectual conflict. It had survived the Marxist subversions of the 70s and the feminist invasion. Yet the renewed challenges of various forms of relativism (especially enthno-methodology and post-modernism) still threatened, and at root the war was, as it began, between a scientific quantifying and explanatory subject and a literary, interpretative set of cultural studies.

A critical history of sociology in Britain. A.H. Halsey presents an authoritative picture of the neglect, expansion, fragmentation and explosion of the discipline over the 21st century. The story begins with L.T. Hobhouse's election to the first Chair in Sociology in London in 1907, but traces earlier origins of the discipline to Scotland and the English provinces. There is a lively account of the 19th-century battles between literature and science for the possession of the third culture of social studies, setting the context for a narrative history of rapid expansion in the second half of the 20th century.

Education: Culture, Economy, and Society is a book for everyone concerned with the social study of education: students studying the sociology of education, foundations of education, educational policy, and other related courses. It aims to establish the social study of education at the centre stage of political and sociological debate about post-industrial societies. In examining major changes which have taken place in the late twentieth century, it gives students a comprehensive introduction to both the nature of these changes and to their interpretation in relation to long-standing debates within education, sociology, and cultural studies.

The extensive editorial introduction outlines the major theoretical approaches within the sociology of education, assesses their contribution to an adequate understanding of the changing educational context, and sets out the key issues and areas for future research. The 52 papers in this wide-ranging thematic reader bring together the most powerful work in education into an international dialogue which is sure to become a classic text.

Contributors: Professor Michael W. Apple, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA Madeleine Arnot, Cambridge University Professor Stanley Aronowitz, Graduate Centre, City University of New York Professor David Ashton, University of Leicester, UK Professor Stephen J. Ball, King's College, University of London Professor Basil Bernstein, Institute of Education, University of London Professor Jill Blackmore, Deakin University, Australia Professor Allan Bloom, University of Chicago Professor Pierre Bourdieu, College de France, Paris Dr Richard Bowe, King's College, University of London Dr Phillip Brown, Reader in Sociology, University of Kent, UK John E. Chubb, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution, Washington Professor John Codd, Massey University, NZ Professor James Coleman, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago Professor R.W. Connell, University of California, Santa Cruz Professor Roger Dale, University of Auckland, NZ Linda Darling-Hammond, William F. Russell Professor, Foundation of Education, Columbia University Professor Miriam David, South Bank University Professor William De Fazio, St John's University, New York Lisa D. Delpit, Baltimore City Schools Professor Michelle Fine, Graduate Centre, City University of New York Professor Stephen Fraser, Vice-President and Executive Editor, Basic Books Dr Sharon Gewirtz, King's College, University of London Professor Henry Giroux, Pennsylvania State University Professor John Goldthorpe, Nuffield College, Oxford Dr Liz Gordon, Senior Lecturer, University of Canterbury, NZ Professor Gerald Grace, University of Durham, UK Dr Andy Green, Reader in Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK Professor A.H. Halsey, Nuffield College, Oxford Professor Andy Hargreaves, The Ontario Institute for Student Education, Toronto,Canada Professor Richard Harker, Massey University, NZ Professor Anthony Heath, Nuffield College, Oxford Professor Carolyn Kelly, Stanford University, California Professor Jane Kenway, Deakin University, Australia Professor Krishan Kumar, University of Kent, UK Professor Annette Lareau, Southern Illinois University Professor Hugh Lauder, University of Bath, UK Professor Henry M. Levin, Stanford University, California Dr Darren McMahon, University College, Dublin Professor Andrew McPherson, Edinburgh University Terry M. Moe, Associate Professor of Political Science, Stanford University, California Professor Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Hamilton College, USA Professor Peter Mortimore, Director, Institute of Education, University of London, UK Professor John U. Ogbu, University of California, Berkeley Professor Robert B. Reich, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Professor I. Serna, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA Professor Johnny Sung, University of Leicester, UK Martin Thrupp, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ Dr Harry Torrance, University of Sussex, UK Sietske Waslander, University of Groningen, Netherlands Professor Amy Stuart Wells, UCLA Professor Gaby Weiner, South Bank University, UK Professor Cornel West, Harvard University Professor Geoffrey Whitty, Institute of Education, University of London Professor J. Douglas Willms, University of British Columbia, Canada Professor William Julius Wilson, The University of Chicago Dr Maureen Woodhall, Institute of Education, University of London, UK Michael Young, Institute of Community Studies, London, UK

British higher education is internationally perceived as being in crisis. In this book A. H. Halsey examines how the present-day situation developed. Beginning with the 1963 Robbins Report, he argues that, despite the subsequent expansion of higher education, this initiative represented a failed thrust towards mass higher education. He shows how the rise of liberal economic policies was irrelevant to the long-term decline of academic power and demonstrates how power has ebbed away from academics towards government, and towards students and industry as consumers of education and research. Professor Halsey's arguments are buttressed by extensive surveys, carried out in 1964, 1976, and 1989, which chart the development of academic opinion in universities and polytechnics. The survey reveals low morale, disappointment, and resentment; but these feelings are still combined with a persistent belief in the British idea of university. Professor Halsey's discussion and analysis provide vital information about the current state of Britain's higher education system and offer an important contribution to the fierce debate about educational and training policies which is currently one of the central topics of British political debate.

Education is seen as central to economic competitiveness, the reduction of poverty and inequality, and environmental sustainability. The editors have selected key writings that examine the social and economic limits- and possibilities of-education in addressing these fundamental problems. This new reader establishes the field of sociology of education with a particular focus on papers that analyse the nature and extent of globalization in education. A general introduction presents the key concepts in the sociology of education, and outlines the major theories and debates, especially in relation to globalization. Each section is accompanied by a part opener explaining and contextualizing the readings within a larger educational and sociological context.