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The Aristocracy of Talent
- Author
- Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrator
- Jonathan Cowley
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Publish Date
- 28 June 2022
- Run Time
- 18 hours 8 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, 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?
In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian 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 meritocratic 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.
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Details
- Author
- Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrator
- Jonathan Cowley
- Duration
- 18 hours 8 minutes
- Release Date
- 28 June 2022
- ISBN
- 9798765035344
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Genre
- Economic theory and philosophy, Industrial arbitration and negotiation, Trade unions, Labour / income economics, Industrial relations, occupational health and safety, Economics
Synopsis
The Times (UK) book of the year!Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, 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?In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed journalist and historian 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 meritocratic 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.
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