A History of Harrow School 1324-1991. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, March, 2001

A History of Harrow School 1324-1991. Christopher Tyerman. Oxford University Press. [pound]30.00. 599 pages. ISBN 0-19-822796-5. This is the first history of Harrow to appear for over fifty years and the first to be based on the full use of the school's own archives. The author, who is Senior Tutor at the school, has aimed at an 'unsentimental scholarly history'.

Although founded as a grammar school, or rather, re-founded in 1572. in time Harrow became England's most famous public school, apart from Eton. It became, and, he argues, remains 'synonymous with class, social division, and privileged education...common shorthand for a certain sort of exclusivity attracting the tawdriest excesses of snobbery'. It is now 'a luxury school for the aspiring wealthy' all of which makes one wonder why one wants a history of the school in the first place. The key lies in the role Harrow and her sister schools have played in English, but not necessarily British, history. Harrow survived because with a small endowment it had to 'reforge' and maintain a good reputation as an academic institution. Inevitably myths have grown up and Mr Tyerman's aim is to look behind these to see how the school began and developed over the centuries and how, during that period, it has mirrored much (but hardly all) of English life. This is a good history that will set the standard for future school histories throughout the country. (T.B.)