Lightening our darkness: renaissance, reformation and enlightenment -- A pastoral symphony: Pestalozzi, Froebel and romanticism-- Reclaiming earthly paradise: Froebelians and the invention of progressive education -- Industry, philanthropy and industrial education systems -- 'Christian children all must be...': moralists, moral panics and empire -- State schooling and the construction of 'public childhoods' -- Brave new worlds and rhapsody renewed: new rationalities, new institutions and old ideas -- The shape of jazz to come: Plowden, progressivism and discourses of difference -- Can things only get better? New labour, quality of life and beyond