This book is a critical evaluation of A. S. Neill's contribution to educational theory and practice. The study includes some biographical material, but this material is introduced to provide a focus for Neill's ideas. The author devotes special attention to Neill's contributions to the psychological aspects of freedom within the social and political context of the twentieth century. The writer traces the influence of such men as Homer Lane, Sigmund Freud, and Wilhelm Reich on Neill and compares Neill's educational theories with those of Susan Isaacs, Maria Montessori, and Bertrand Russell. Current alternatives to Neill's ideas proposed by such people as Paul Goodman, Ivan Illich, Herbert Marcuse, and R. D. Laing, are also discussed. The writer devotes his last chapter to speculating about how Neill's form of education might help people oppose threats to freedom. Two appendixes are included: the first is a discussion of the results of a questionnaire about Neill sent to selected British teachers; the second is a list of some of the reactions in newspaper articles to Neill. A selected bibliography is included. (Author/DI)