This university text book is a study of the origin and development of  national educational systems in the West in the 19th and 20th centuries. It shows how the liberal revolutions that gave rise to the modern age also brought about a transcendental transformation in the field of education, giving birth to organised education systems run by the nascent liberal states. From this moment on educational trends and methods, the different models of institutions of learning and the organisation and practice of schools alll developed mainly within the framework of these educational systems. This put schools in the radius of politics and gave them a central place in national life, at the service, too, of economic development.