Posing a challenge to more traditional approaches to the history of education, this interdisciplinary collection examines the complex web of beliefs and methods by which culture was transmitted to young people in eighteenth-century Britain. Contributors cast a wide net to uncover the rich variety of educational activities, the multitude of cultural and social contexts in which young people were educated, and the extent of the differences between principle and practice throughout the period.

Contents: Introduction, Mary Hilton and Jill Shefrin; 'O miserable and most ruinous measure': the debate between private and public education in Britain, 1760-1800, Sophia Woodley; Evangelicalism and enlightenment: the educational agenda of Hannah More, Anne Stott; Marketing religious identity: female educators, Methodist culture, and 18th-century childhood, Mary Clare Martin; Learning and virtue: English grammar and the 18th-century girls' school, Carol Percy; ' Familiar conversation': the role of the 'familiar format' in education in 18th- and 19th-century England, Michèle Cohen; Hosting the Grand Tour: civility, enlightenment and culture, c. 1740-1790, Jennifer Mori; 'Superior to the rudest shocks of adversity': English Jesuit education and culture in the long 18th century, 1688-1832, Maurice Whitehead; Colonising the mind: the use of English writers in the education of the Irish poor, c 1750-1850, Deirdre Raftery; 'Adapted for and used in infants' schools, nurseries, &c.': booksellers and the infant school market, Jill Shefrin; Delightful instruction? Assessing children's use of educational books in the long 18th century, M.O. Grenby; Bibliography; Index.

Mary Hilton is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge and Jill Shefrin was for many years a librarian with the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books and a Research Associate in Arts at Trinity College at the University of Toronto, Canada.