An 2022-23 Historical Association event

Before the Second World War, only 115 of young people had any experience of secondary school and hardly 1-2% of higher education; today of course everyone goes to secondary school for up to 7 years and half of all young people go on to higher education. How did we get here from there? This talk argues that the celebrated doings of politicians – Rab Butler, Tony Crosland, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair – deserve less credit for this transformation in educational opportunity in postwar Britain than much broader and deeper trends in demography, people’s aspirations, and social mobility.

HA meetings will be in the Birchall Hall, Queen’s College, Taunton, by kind permission of the Headmaster, Mr Julian Noad.

The lectures begin at 7.30pm (door open at 7.00 pm) and will finish at about 8.45pm.

Entry fee – £2 per lecture (free to students)