Provides an overview of the disctinctive thinking of a fascinating mix of educational pioneers and thinkers from the canon of philosophers and philosophical schools from the classical, medieval, early modern and modern. Includes: Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Humboldt, Utopian socialists, J.S. Mill, Carpenter and Dewey.

Introduction: Education and Political Power Christopher Brooke and Elizabeth Frazer 1: Socrates, Plato, Eros and Liberal Education Mark L. McPherran 2: Aristotle's Educational Politics and the Aristotelian Renaissance in the Philosophy of Education Randall Curren 3: Philosophy and Education in Stoicism of the Roman Imperial Era Gretchen J. Reydams-Schils 4: Medieval Theories of Education: Hugh of St. Victor and John of Salisbury Brian D. Fitzgerald 5: Education, Erasmian Humanism and More's Utopia John M. Parrish 6: Teaching the Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes on Education Teresa M. Bejan 7: Locke on Education and the Rights of Parents Alex Tuckness 8: Rousseau's Philosophy of Transformative De-naturing Education Patrick Riley 9: Educational Theory and the Social Vision of the Scottish Enlightenment Ryan Patrick Hanley 10: Mary Wollstonecraft and Catharine Macaulay on Education Elizabeth Frazer 11: Bildung and the Reform of German Higher Education Alexander Schmidt 12: Education and Utopia: Robert Owen and Charles Fourier David Leopold 13: Harriet Martineau and the Unitarian Tradition in Education Ruth Watts 14: J. S. Mill on Education Alan Ryan 15: Feminist Thinking on Education in Victorian England Laura Schwartz 16: Idealism and Education Andrew Vincent 17: 'Affection in Education': Edward Carpenter, John Addington Symonds and the Politics of Greek Love Josephine Crawley Quinn and Christopher Brooke 18: John Dewey: Saviour of American Education or Worse than Hitler? Richard Pring