In educational politics, Caroline Benn (1926-2000) played a leading role in the British comprehensive reform. Wife of one of the most prominent post-war socialists in Britain, the aim is to use Caroline's long campaign alongside teachers, trade unions, parents, progressive academics and activists as a starting point with which to explore a particular period of egalitarian policy making in the United Kingdom. Examining her networks, her mix of causes, her interests and her thinking, the purpose of this article is to do justice to the diversity and achievements of the Comprehensive Education Movement as a whole. History is a crucial safeguard against the dangers of myth-making. The article uses history and biography systematically as a method of building on the past in order to understand the present and move forward into the future, to further the educational causes she championed but in such a way that we are not trapped in a "back to the past" framework. [See the accompanying article "Caroline DeCamp Benn and the Comprehensive Education Movement," by Clyde Chitty at EJ1018422.]