ABSTRACT

This book was written during a period which saw a Conservative Party in power in the UK, first under David Cameron and then under Theresa May, a Republican Party under Donald Trump come to power in the USA, and a number of parties sometimes described as 'right-wing' grow in importance in the continental Europe. It will be the extent to which a 'conservative' approach to the education privileges an induction into membership of the nation state, while also fostering a global perspective, or whether indeed it should eschew both in line with Hannah Arendt's wish 'not to instruct in the art of living'. To offset the Anglo-American focus, the book have also at times tried to show how in France a not dissimilar current of opinion has been challenging the left liberal educational and cultural orthodoxies of their times.