A. S. Neill, founder of Summerhill, the most admired and most feared of all progressive schools, was famous as a schoolteacher, educational reformer, and author of illuminating and stylish books about education and the mind of the child. But few people know he was also a dedicated, prolific, uninhibited, witty and often mischievous letter writer. This selection of gems, first published in 1983, has been chosen from hundreds of his letters by his biographer. It includes letters about education, children, politics, writing, fatherhood, the Bomb, old age and death. ‘All the best, Neill’ was the familiar ending of his letters to the famous – H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, Henry Miller, Paul Goodman, Wilhelm Reich, Homer Lane; to important educators – W. B. Curry of Dartington, John Aitkenhead of Kilquhanity, Bob Mackenzie of Braehead, Dora Russell of Beacon Hill; to unknown friends, parents, and even casual correspondents. To read these letters is to share the company of a great and always delightful man, who wrote each one with the same commitment and gaiety.

A. S. Neill was arguably the most famous child educator of the twentieth century. He was certainly the most controversial. All over the world, countless parents and teachers have been shocked, delighted or inspired by his subversive ideas about education, or by a visit to ‘that dreadful school’ which continues to this day – Summerhill. First published in 1983, this sympathetic but critical exploration of his iconoclastic ideas and personality is the result of interviews with two hundred ex-pupils, parents and teachers about life at Summerhill, and of the practicality of Neill’s philosophy about child freedom. Jonathan Croall has also drawn on many unpublished letters and documents, which help to illuminate Neill’s personal struggles, and his analysis and friendship with Homer Lane, Wilhelm Stekel and Wilhelm Reich. The result is a fascinating and revealing portrait of a remarkable man who, in his absolute determination to be ‘on the side of the child’, remained in permanent opposition to the adult world.

This book, first published in 1988, brings together leading researchers from both the retailing business and the academic world to discuss the latest techniques of analysis and forecasting in the fields of store choice, store location, and market analysis. Its rationale is the major restructuring of the UK retailing industry which has taken place over the past twenty years, and the profound implications of that restructuring for the type of research necessary to understand, maintain and enhance corporate responsibility. The contributors present accounts of the development of new and original methods for retail analysis and forecasting purposes. They lay stress upon practical methods which are accurate and robust, and which can operate with the type of data typically available to retailers. The book will provide a major work of reference for retailers, market researchers, retail analysts, estate managers, urban planners and geographers in many countries.

First published in 1923, this formative history of Ireland is an extensive study of the period from 1086 – 1513. Beginning with the O’Brien High Kinship, Edmund Curtis takes us through the Anglo-Norman conquest and its sequel, ending with the death of Gerald ‘the Great Earl’ of Kildare in 1513, a date when the second English conquest of Ireland (the ‘Tudor Reconquest’) became imminent. This is a reissue of a definitive landmark study of Irish history by one of greatest Irish historians of the twentieth century.

This book is about education as a communicative process, about how knowledge is presented, received, controlled, understood and misunderstood by teachers and children in the classroom.

This book chronicles the struggle among non-Communist leftists and liberals over American relations with the Soviet Union from 1939 through the 1950s. Few now care as passionately and as violently as people did then about Soviet-American relations. It was a time when friends became enemies, and others forged strange alliances, all in the name of commitments that today seem remote. A Better World evokes those times and their choices, and explains why these long-ago battles still arouse such deep feelings today - and should.Americans who were pro-Soviet without being members of the Communist party - 'progressives' as they called themselves - had a large emotional investment in the Soviet Union. From 1935 to 1939 literally millions joined the 'Popular Front' of pro-Soviet organizations. O'Neill takes us through the shock of the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939, through the revival of the Popular Front spurred by government and business support after Russia entered the war against Hitler. He traces the isolation of the anti-Stalinists, the rise and fall of Henry Wallace, and the eclipse of progressivism. And he explores the shifting allegiances of intellectuals as they struggled, often with each other, to influence the course of public debate, with long-lasting consequences for American intellect, culture, and morals.As O'Neill observes in his introduction, 'More than any of my other books A Better World inspired correspondents to send me probing or reflective letters.' It was this response, along with the extraordinary critical debate spurred by initial publication of this volume, that makes the book's continuing importance clear. The dream of achieving a better world through radical violence never dies, and the willingness of apologists to cling to utopian visions persists. As long as it does, the lessons of this book need to be available to us.

Nonverbal signals are less easily controlled that words and thus, potentially, offer reliable information to both teachers and children on each other’s true intentions. But such signals are also more ambiguous than words, and this makes them valuable when teachers or children wish to send a message they do not want to be challenged. Even so, misunderstandings can occur, for example, between different ethnic groups. Originally published in 1991, Sean Neill explores how children’s skill in using and understanding nonverbal signals increases with age. The appropriate nonverbal signals for teachers differ from those used in informal conversation because of the teacher’s controlling, instructing and encouraging role, and this creates problems for new teachers, who also find it difficult to interpret the limited feedback from the class. A detailed coverage of teachers’ and children’s signals leads on to a survey of how teachers acquire nonverbal skills and research on effective training. Classroom Nonverbal Communication provides the only comprehensive survey of these areas for staff involved in the initial and in-service training of teachers, and in staff development. Classroom social arrangements are permanently reflected in seating layout and room design, which can allow teachers and administrators to influence classroom interaction through advance planning. For these groups, this richly illustrated volume assesses how effective such planning really is. Sean Neill has researched room layout and nonverbal communication in education since 1975 and has published many papers dealing with these issues. He provides a uniquely comprehensive survey of the research evidence on classroom nonverbal communication.