Education in Tudor and Stuart England

Résumé du livre

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the formative period of English education: universal schooling was recognized as necessary for social well-being of the country and as a precondition for the moral welfare of its youth. The documents in this volume have been drawn in the light of the most recent scholarship from contemporary manuscript and printed sources; they show the evolution of education in Tudor and Stuart England and the social and political pressures which bore upon it. The book describes the education system, its teachers and curricula as they were, and displays the contrasting conceptions of how they ought to be. Professor Cressy examines the impact of social change upon education- the reformation, the civil war and the interregnum- and the attempts of political and religious factions to employ education as an instrument of social control. The editor also shows the distinctions made in the education to different sections of society- gentlemen, women, artisans and the professions- and the opportunities for individual advancement that were afforded to be educated. At the same time the book demonstrates the way in which educational theory and practice advanced during the greater part of this period. The general introduction, individual commentaries to each document and the documents themselves together form a self-contained introduction to education in Tudor and Stuart England, which may be read with or without secondary monographs. This is the only collection of documents on the subject.