Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. Educated at St John's College, Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Harvard (where he was a Kennedy Scholar 1971-72), Hennessy went on to spend 20 years in journalism. He is a Fellow of the British Academy. The author of several major works of contemporary British history including The Secret State, The Prime Minister, Never Again: Britain 1945-1951 and Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties, Hennessy nows sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords.
"A ruling class based on meritocracy is the great goal. In
Establishment and Meritocracy, Peter Hennessy describes meritocracy
and the ruling establishment as 'a pair of trains running on
parallel tracks throughout the postwar society, taking on extra
passengers and baggage by the decade.'"
-- "New Statesman"
"The value of this book . . . is that it is a picture from the
inside. If you want to know what the establishment thinks of
itself, look at this."
-- "Guardian"
"Written with lucidity, learning, and typical wit."
-- "The Tablet"
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