ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 takes as its starting point the revolution in recruitment strategies at the Civil Service in the mid-1940s. Responding to the social and political impact of the Second World War, a new ‘scientific’ recruitment system (the Civil Service Selection Board, known as CSSB) was established in Whitehall, purportedly to eradicate social bias from the process. Via a close reading of governmental archives, this chapter reveals the ways in which class nevertheless became embedded in the ‘objective’ interview techniques that were relied upon by recruiters. The theme established in this chapter of ‘meritocratic’ recruitment that claimed to be blind to characteristics like class, gender or race resonates throughout the book.
