Histories of Institutions and Social Change 5 The Education Revolution Renata Horvatek and David P. Baker Contents Introduction ....................................................................................... 66 Institutional Histories of Mass Schooling ........................................................ 67 Social History of Mass Schooling ............................................................ 73 Social Institutions Under Pressure to Change Due to Education Expansion ................ 77 Conclusion and Future Directions ................................................................ 79 References ........................................................................................ 81 Abstract This chapter provides a brief overview of the historical expansion of mass education in the West from a social and institutional perspective. Additionally, the relationship of education with other social institution is discussed. The chapter includes controversies over the conceptualizing of education’ s role in social change. The theme of education’ s role in legitimating nation-states and world society is introduced, and an overview of education’ s influence on changes in other social institutions is presented. The conclusion offers some evidence of education expansion benefits for social transformation and development. Keywords Institutional history of education · Social history of education · Education expansion · Nation-state formation · World society R. Horvatek (*) · D. P. Baker The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA e-mail: ruh158@psu.edu; dpb4@psu.edu © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. Fitzgerald (ed.), Handbook of Historical Studies in Education, Springer International Handbooks of Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2362-0_4 65