From School To War

A historical analysis of the contribution of Great Britain’s public schools to the conduct of World War II. Following their ground-breaking book on Public Schools and the Great War, David Walsh and Anthony Seldon now examine how those same schools fared in the Second World War. They use eye-witness testimony to recount stories of resilience and improvisation in 1940 as the likelihood of invasion and the terrors of the Blitz threatened the very survival of public schools. They also assess the giant impact that public school alumni contributed to every aspect of the war effort. The authors examine how the “People’s War” brought social cohesion, with the opportunity to end public school exclusiveness to the fore, encouraged by Winston Churchill among others. That opportunity was ironically squandered by the otherwise radical Clement Attlee’s post-war Labour government, prolonging the “public school problem” right through to the present day. The public schools shaped twentieth century history profoundly, never more so than in the conduct of both its world wars. The impact of the schools on both wars was very different, as were the legacies. Drawing widely on primary source material and personal accounts of inspiring courage and endurance, this book is full of profound historical reflection and is essential reading for all who want to understand the history of modern Britain.

In an era defined by political polarization, both major U.S. parties have come to share a remarkably similar understanding of the education system as well as a set of punitive strategies for fixing it. Combining an intellectual history of social policy with a sweeping history of the educational system, Daniel S. Moak looks beyond the rise of neoliberalism to find the origin of today's education woes in Great Society reforms. In the wake of World War II, a coalition of thinkers gained dominance in U.S. policymaking. They identified educational opportunity as the ideal means of addressing racial and economic inequality by incorporating individuals into a free market economy. The passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965 secured an expansive federal commitment to this goal. However, when social problems failed to improve, the underlying logic led policymakers to hold schools responsible. Moak documents how a vision of education as a panacea for society's flaws led us to turn away from redistributive economic policies and down the path to market-based reforms, No Child Left Behind, mass school closures, teacher layoffs, and other policies that plague the public education system to this day.

Weeks after the outbreak of World War II, Joseph Halpern's Polish town, Vladimir Volynsky, in what is now part of Ukraine, was annexed by the Russians. Because of his high intelligence, mechanical prowess, and athletic ability, he was soon hand-picked to be an air cadet. On June 22, 1941, Hitler broke his pact with Stalin and launched Operation Barbarossa, an all-out attack on Russia. Halpern became a fighter pilot for the Russian Air Force, serving the Allies in trying to bring down the Nazi regime. Later on, Halpern became a special forces commando; trained in martial arts, to withstand torture, see in the dark, hear whispers, disappear in a crowd, and kill with his hands. He was shot down four times, and after cheating death on many occasions (and receiving many military honours), following World War II, he founded the Herzl Orphanage, and helped create the Israeli Air Force. He finally came to Canada and was reunited with his parents he had presumed were dead. He went on to a distinguished career with RCA Victor and the University of Ottawa. Joseph Israel Halpern played a crucial role in NASA's Apollo missions. His initials, JIH, remain carved onto a battery that is still on the moon.

Alexandre Najjar was eight when Lebanon erupted into a bloody and brutal conflict; he was twenty-three when the guns at last fell silent. After seven years of voluntary exile spent trying to escape the nightmare of civil war, he is now back amongst his family and friends, and the past is quickly catching up with him. As he reacquaints himself with his bullet-riddled city, Alexandre is haunted by vivid memories which he sets down with extraordinary candour and good humour. Sometimes nostalgic, often brutal and shocking, The School of War offers unforgettable insight into a child's experiences during times of conflict. 'A marvellously affecting memoir of the war in Lebanon: perfectly pitched and intensely evocative, and all the more powerful from being seen through the eyes of a child.' William Boyd Delicate and unforgettable' Elle Magazine One of the most talented writers of his generation' Le Monde

Shortly after the Russians launched Sputnik in 1957, Hannah Arendt quipped that "only in America could a crisis in education actually become a factor in politics." The Cold War battle for the American school - dramatized but not initiated by Sputnik - proved Arendt correct. The schools served as a battleground in the ideological conflicts of the 1950s. Beginning with the genealogy of progressive education, and ending with the formation of New Left and New Right thought, Education and the Cold War offers a fresh perspective on the postwar transformation in U.S. political culture by way of an examination of the educational history of that era.

This was the first book which globally surveyed the impact of the Second World War on schooling. It offers fascinating comparisons of the impact of total war, both in terms of physical disruption and its effects on the ideology of schooling. By analysing the effects on the education systems of each of the participant nations the contributors throw new light on the responses made in different parts of the globe to the challenge of world-wide conflict.

America's latest war, according to renowned social critic Henry Giroux, is a war on youth. While this may seem counterintuitive in our youth-obsessed culture, Giroux lays bare the grim reality of how our educational, social, and economic institutions continually fail young people. Their systemic failure is the result of what Giroux identifies as ""four fundamentalisms"": market deregulation, patriotic and religious fervor, the instrumentalization of education, and the militarization of society. We see the consequences most plainly in the decaying education system: schools are increasingly desi.