This co-authored book, based on an ESRC funded research project, offers an account of the development of ALN between 1970-2000 that aims to be accessible to both practitioners and researchers. It presents adult literacy as a case study of change in the post-school sector and shows it to be a marginal and unstable space of educational practice, held open by key activists and constantly reshaped by wider policy reforms. The book is based on over 200 oral history interviews with practitioners and policy actors and an extensive documentary archive. To gain an adult learner perspective, it uses data from a national cohort study (The National Child Development Study). A reviewer from the UNESCO Institute of Education in Hamburg commented ""This is an invaluable piece of work for those currently working in adult literacy in the UK'.and for those of us in international organisations working on literacy and lifelong learning"". RAE_import_type : Authored book RAE_uoa_type : Education