Environment and Efficiency: A Study in the Records of Industrial, Schools and Orphanages (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Mary Horner Thomson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0484507575 ISBN 13: 9780484507578

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

Environment and Efficiency investigates how a person's surroundings shape their potential, using real records to test whether place or heredity drives success.

This scholarly work collects and analyzes a wide range of evidence from industrial, school, and orphanage records. It asks how environment can boost human efficiency and whether statistical methods can prove that environment, not just inheritance, determines outcomes. The author also places the discussion in a broader historical and philosophical context, citing ideas from contemporary thinkers and the signatura rerum concept as a lens for understanding why some lives improve while others falter. The book foregrounds practical programs, like Children’s Homes and Boys’ Homes, and shows how training, trade apprenticeships, and steady work can shape futures. It blends narrative with data to present a thoughtful, measured view of social reform.

• Examine the argument that environment can alter life trajectories, alongside debates about heredity.
• Explore how real records measure outcomes for children and young people in homes, schools, and emigration programs.
• See how training, apprenticeship, and work opportunities are presented as paths to improved efficiency and independence.
• Read about practical programs in welfare and education, including trades, printing, farming, and band training, and how they connect to long-term outcomes.

Ideal for readers of social science and reform-era studies, educators, and those interested in how early 20th‑century data shaped debates on environment and human potential.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0484507575
• ISBN 13: 9780484507578
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 114