Book excerpt: For those who want to wallow in the past - this is a comfortable book that sets one's own experiences in context. For those who will still be working into the next century, here are the issues we must face as leaders. For those PhD and EdD students seeking topics to research, there are all the controversial issues here that still need investigation and it has a stunning list of references - a roll call of all the great and the good in the last 25 years of educational administration' -" International Studies in Educational Administration " The book is a challenge to everyone concerned with the present and future state of public education in the UK and the rest of the developed world.The issues are of special concern to those who are expected to provide leadership in schools and colleges and for those with public and political responsibilities. How should our conception of learning and its contribution to a Learning Society be defined? How can education and other aspects of social care and nurturing enhance our lives as people, irrespective of our performance' capabilities? What is the role of teachers who also manage' learning? This book contributes formatively to current debate. What can educationists do about the discontinuous changes which threaten parents and professionals alike? Must education submit to the stranglehold of economic rationalism'? It is hoped that this book will assist all those working to promote education's humane and learning aspirations in society.