The importance of people gaining new, and high-level, qualifications in adulthood has been much emphasised in policy rhetoric. It is widely assumed that adults should engage in learning throughout their working life in order to adapt to changing conditions in the labour market and to ensure that national economies remain competitive in a global…

This book traces the history of adult and continuing education in the United States from 1750 through 1990. The following topics are among those examined in the book's 12 chapters: literature, philosophy, and self-education in the 18th century; uses of knowledge in the antebellum period (law and learning, piety and learning, commerce and culture);…