Like so many of his postwar generation in Britain, Peter Hennessy climbed the ladders of opportunity set up by the 1944 Education Act, designed to craft a more meritocratic society. In this highly personal book, Hennessy examines the rise of meritocracy as a concept, and the persistence of the shadowy notion of an establishment in Britain s institutions. He asks whether these elusive descriptors still have explanatory power in understanding British society and institutions, and why they continue to fascinate us. But to what extent are these both imagined concepts? Hennessy asks whether British meritocracy actually rose in the years after 1945? And, if so, to what extent has it now stalled?

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Peter Hennessy is one of the United Kingdom's leading contemporary historians and is the Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary University of London. He is the author of definitive books on the United Kingdom's prime ministers, constitution, civil service, and intelligence agencies. His award-winning works of contemporary history include Never Again: Britain, 1945-51, Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties, and Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties. He is the series editor of the Haus Curiosities, and his books published with Haus include The Bonfire of the Decencies, The Complete Reflections, and Land of Shame and Glory.