E. G. West was educated at the University College of Exeter, graduating in economics in 1948. He has taught at several British colleges and at Carleton University in Ottawa, and has been a visiting research scholar at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Berkeley and a visiting professor at the Center for Study of Public Choice, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr. West authored several books including Education and the State and Education and the Industrial Revolution. His articles have appeared in numerous periodicals and scholarly journals.