Learning to Be Modern

By combining many photographs and scans of documents, Alan Macfarlane presents an account of his 'education' from his birth in Assam, India in 1941 through to leaving Oxford University in 1963. The theme is the transformation of a child through infancy, boarding schools and university, from the home to the wider society. As an anthropologist and historian the author is aware of how unusual the English system of education has been for many centuries. It is now influencing much of the world. This is part of a wider study of comparative education between China and the West. Alan Macfarlane is a retired Professorof Anthropoogy at Cambridge University. The book complements his Letters to Lily and Reflections for Rosa.