A rigorous, compelling and balanced examination of the British private school system and the lifetime inequalities it entrenches

'Thoroughly researched and written with such calm authority, yet makes you want to scream with righteous indignation' John O'Farrell ‘We can expect the manifesto-writers at the next general election to pass magpie-like over these chapters ... The appeal to act is heartfelt’ Financial Times ___________________ Includes a new chapter, 'Moving Ahead?' Britain’s private, fee-paying schools are institutions where children from affluent families have their privileges further entrenched through a high-quality, richly-resourced education. Engines of Privilege contends that, in a society that mouths the virtues of equality of opportunity, of fairness and of social cohesion, the educational apartheid separating private schools from our state schools deploys our national educational resources unfairly; blocks social mobility; reproduces privilege down the generations; and underpins a damaging democratic deficit in our society. Francis Green and David Kynaston carefully examine options for change, while drawing on the valuable lessons of history. Clear, vigorous prose is combined with forensic analysis to powerful effect, illuminating the painful contrast between the importance of private schools in British society and the near-absence of serious, policy-shaping debate. ___________________ 'An excoriating account of the inequalities perpetuated by Britain’s love affair with private schools' The Times

"Their tone is calm and evidence-based, not agitprop … They have made up my mind. I now feel clear not just that change is urgently needed, but that options for change are more varied, imaginative and realistic than I’d dared imagine" - Tablet

"Fascinating " - Spectator

"‘[A] powerful attack on private schools as engines of privilege … a forensic examination of what the authors call “Britain’s private school problem” … They start strong … leaving you in no doubt about the path from private schooling to the elite … This book does a fine job of explaining and damning Britain’s private school problem" - The Times

"An excoriating account of the inequalities perpetuated by Britain’s love affair with private schools" - The Times

"A passionate attack on private schools … Kynaston’s flair for anecdotes shines through ... Fascinating " - Sunday Times

"Timely" - Guardian

"The historical background to our arguments over state and private education today is the most intriguing part of Engines of Privilege ... imbued with Kynaston’s fascination with the arguments and mores of post-war Britain" - Evening Standard

"Francis Green and David Kynaston say loud and clear that Britain’s private schools are a social problem … This book provides warnings and lessons of what doesn’t work and ideas of what policies could work to dismantle these 'engines of privilege'" - Socialist Worker

"A fresh dissection of what [Kynaston and Green] deem "Britain's private school problem" ... We can expect the manifesto-writers at the next general election to pass magpie-like over these chapters" - Financial Times

"[A] forensic and damning examination of ... "Britain's private school problem"" - The Week

"David Kynaston is one of the great chroniclers of our modern story ... Every paragraph contains some glittering nugget" - Sunday Times

"An exemplary narrative history, with the archives plundered judiciously and plenty of focus on people and their quirks … Fascinating" - The Times

"This is the work of a scholar with a gift for illuminating every square inch of each enormous canvas he chooses to paint … Kynaston brings characters large and small to life" - Literary Review

"A historian of peerless sensitivity and curiosity about the lives of individuals" - Financial Times