Anthony Crosland was the most formative of education ministers in the 1960s whose contribution promoted intellectual activity within the policy discourse. He retains an iconic status for that reason. He provided the intellectual foundations of "revisionism" which emancipated the Labour Party from belief in nationalisation as the way to greater equality. He eschewed the traditional canons of Labour policy which embodied faded value assumptions. He separated values and ideals from the means of achieving them. "The future of socialism" (1956) knocked the ground from under the Marxists' feet by showing that there was no evidence of the pauperisation of the masses or that capitalism was near collapse. There was no necessary link between class and power. The devotion to Clause 4 was misplaced: nationalisation was a means, not an end. Private ownership could be used to advance social ends but not in preference to public ownership. He reviewed education's faults and ways of remedying them. The comprehensive principle must be propagated and public school entry democratised. Education, not nationalisation, would create a more just society. He made a large impact in a short time. He can be criticised for not being more decisive in pursuing his objectives but was unusual as a gifted intellectual who applied knowledge to current policy issues on which he held passionate beliefs.