Hist West Educ:Ancient World V 1

Book excerpt: Volume One of three, this is a reprint of James Bowen's A History of Western Education originally published by Methuen in the 1970s. Volume One covers The Ancient World: Orient and Mediterranean 2000B.C - A.D. 1054. The volume traces the development of education in the ancient world from the first scribal cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt to learning in the early Christian church. A detailed account is given of the achievements of Greece in literacy, learning, philosophy and training for public life - achievements which were further developed in the Hellenistic Orient and incorporated by the Romans into their own highly organized educational system. This leads to the emergence of a specifically Christian ideal of education, the decline of secular learning in the West, and the preservation of learning both in Byzantium and in Western monasticism.