Originally published in England under the title "The Public School Phenomenom, 597-1977."

 Though there have been previous books about the British public schools, this long, entertaining, and probing work stands in a class by itself. The author gives us the whole chronicle from the Dark Ages through the crucial and formative nineteenth century to the modern phenomenaof girls' and progressive schools. It is a story which must fascinate anyone anywhere concerned with education, children, class, society, or the human condition.