What's a djibbah, how long has the old school tie been around and do yellow petticoats really repel vermin? How have social and educational changes affected the appearance of schoolchildren? This book will provide answers to these questions and more, in an engaging foray into 500 years of British school uniform history from the charity schools of the sixteenth century through the Victorian public schools to the present day.

In this cross-disciplinary work, Kate Stephenson presents the first comprehensive academic study of school uniform development in Britain as well as offering an analysis of the social and institutional contexts in which this development occurred. With recent debates around the cost, necessity and religious implications of school uniform and its (re)introduction and increasingly formal appearance in many schools, this book is a timely reminder that modern ideas associated with school uniform are the result of a long history of communicating (and disguising) identity.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47788/LYYA3304

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Kate Stephenson offers the first comprehensive study of school uniform development in Britain, and as such offers the reader a reminder that the modern ideas associated with school uniform are the result of a long history of communicating identity akin to the consumption of clothing in a wider sense. As such, this publication would be of interest to anyone with an interest in the development of school uniform and the wider social, cultural, and historical context in which it existed/exists.

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A fresh take on issues of class and gender in education through the lens of that most iconic feature of English education: the school uniform…This excellent book will be of interest to most historians of education. 

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...timely and necessary.

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Kate Stephenson does a great job of bringing the topic of school uniforms to life while tracing their 500-year history. There is no book to compare this with, which shows how original and useful it is.

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...a highly readable and engaging book that will appeal to both a scholarly and a wider audience.

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Kate Stephenson's book constitutes a rich and thorough analysis of the history of school uniform in English schools.

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...this book provides us with rich information on the history of the British school uniform and gives the reader an overview of how authorities and educational institutions regulated school uniforms in order to demonstrate their ideal image of pupils.