Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 240-249.

* Prologue: Seeking the Prep School Perspective The World Of Boarding Schools * Privilege and the Importance of Elite Education * Rousseaus Children: Total Educational Environments * The Chosen Ones The Prep Rite Of Passage * Cultural Capital: Curricula and Teachers * Academic Climates, Teaching Styles, and Student Stress * The Iron Hand in the Velvet Glove: Trustees, Heads, and Charisma * The Prep Crucible * The Student Underlife and the Loss of Innocence The World Beyond * The Vital Link: Prep Schools and Higher Education * Preps at Play and in the Power Structure

Why do private boarding schools produce such a disproportionate number of leaders in business, government, and the arts? In the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, two sociologists describe the complex ways in which elite schools prepare students for success and power, and they also provide a lively behind-the-scenes look at prep-school life and underlife.