Book excerpt: This book examines key theorists in depth in order to give some insight into cultural change as reflected in their curricular recommendations and in the interplay they reveal between the two fundamental educational concepts of ‘artifice’ and ‘nature’. The essays on the various theorists – Erasmus, Vives, Castiglione, Elyot, Montaigne, Bacon, Comenius, Locke and Rousseau can be read separately but the book also forms an integrated whole, with a continuity of themes explored from theorist to theorist. The book not only charts a historical development but also reveals much that may deepen our understanding of contemporary educational dilemmas.