Longlisted for the 2021 Financial Times and McKinsey & Company Business Book of the Year Award
Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their status at birth. For much of history this was a revolutionary thought, but by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?
Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocractic system.
Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.
| ISBN: | 9780241391495 |
| Publication date: | 3rd June 2021 |
| Author: | Adam Wooldridge |
| Publisher: | Allen Lane an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 496 pages |
| Primary Genre | Business and Management |
| Other Genres: |
Longlisted for the 2021 Financial Times and McKinsey & Company Business Book of the Year Award
Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their status at birth. For much of history this was a revolutionary thought, but by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?
Adrian Wooldridge traces the history of meritocracy forged by the politicians and officials who introduced the revolutionary principle of open competition, the psychologists who devised methods for measuring natural mental abilities and the educationalists who built ladders of educational opportunity. He looks outside western cultures and shows what transformative effects it has had everywhere it has been adopted, especially once women were brought into the meritocractic system.
Wooldridge also shows how meritocracy has now become corrupted and argues that the recent stalling of social mobility is the result of failure to complete the meritocratic revolution. Rather than abandoning meritocracy, he says, we should call for its renewal.
The Aristocracy of Talent features in the following genres: Business and Management, Social mobility, History of ideas, Social classes, Social and cultural history, Economic history, Social discrimination and social justice, Poverty and precarity, Sociology: work and labour, Economics, Finance, Business and Management, Social and ethical issues, Society and culture: general, Society and Social Sciences, Cultural studies, Cultural and media studies, Social groups, communities and identities, History: specific events and topics, History, History and Archaeology, Economics, Sociology, Sociology and anthropology
The Aristocracy of Talent is available in Hardback
The Aristocracy of Talent was written by Adam Wooldridge and published by Allen Lane an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
The Aristocracy of Talent has 496 pages
