Boys Together: English Public Schools, 1800-1864

by John Chandos

Although English public schools project an image of clean, polite, and uniformed boys living together in collective worship of God, team games, and academic standards, the early years of these schools had a reality that was far different. The public school that existed before the Clarendon Commission reforms of 1862-64 was a jungle inhabited by a warlike tribe of self-governing boys, into whose social, sporting, and moral lives the masters were not admitted. Boys were chiefly educated by street fighting, poaching, and rioting, and, according to the political enemies of the schools, acquiring a taste for liquor and “a passion for female society of the most degraded kind.” In this engrossing book, John Chandos examines the public schools in the last half century before their reform. Using journals, letters, and autobiographies of the time, he provides revealing anecdotes about all aspects of public school life―from academics and sports to vice, discipline, fagging, and religion. Chandos not only illuminates the harsh treatment boys experienced but also shows why parents continued to commit their sons to this system. Parents were persuaded―the fathers usually from personal experience―that the public schools gave a realistic preparation for the wicked and treacherous world that lay ahead, and that a boy who had weathered the ordeal of a public school was a confirmed survivor. Boys Together is essential reading for students of life and values in nineteenth-century England; it is also enthralling entertainment for the general reader.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

431 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1984

Reviews

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Chandos examines the public schools in the last half century before their reform. He shares revealing anecdotes about all aspects of public school life--from academics and sports to vice, discipline, fagging and religion. He glimpses into the exclusive nature of the English public school in the 18th and early 19th century. While it is not clear how much has changed since then the practices seem to be related to their descendants in the 20th century. The sons of British aristocracy all went to these schools, thus the details are of some interest as sociological and psychological markers for the adults produces by this system of education.
The teaching of Latin and Greek was central to this tradition and the delegation of governing authority to the boys seemed to have both positive and negative elements leading to the formation of young Enlish gentlemen. The practices did not change as fast as the outside world which became more and more critical of the school traditions. The details Chandos provides make interesting reading for anyone who has an interest in the history of education. It is a realistic depiction of a world with both physical and psychological pain and deprivation that surprisingly produced some great minds.

[Jules Bertaut · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am at this point not entirely sure why I thought I'd read this book but it was kind of interesting, mostly because it's describing such a bafflingly weird society as upper class English society in the 1800s. I will say the author seems fairly uncritical of the pre-reform public schools, which seems rather strange to me because they did not sound great at all.

[Templehurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting subject matter at times frustrated by the author's own Victorian priggishness.