Power and the Professions in Britain, 1700-1850

The modern professions have a long history that predates the development offormal institutions and examinations in the nineteenth century. Long before theVictor... » 

The modern professions have a long history that predates the development offormal institutions and examinations in the nineteenth century. Long before theVictorian era the emergent professions wielded power through their specialistknowledge and set up informal mechanisms of control and selfregulation.Penelope Corfield devotes a chapter each to lawyers clerics and doctors andmakes reference to many other professionals teachers apothecariesgovernesses army officers and others. She shows how as the professions gainedin power and influence so they were challenged increasingly by satire andridicule. Corfields analysis of the rise of the professions during this periodcentres on a discussion of the philosophical questions arising from the complexrelationship between power and knowledge. «