The first fully comparative empirical analysis of the relationship between education and social cohesion, this book develops a new 'distributional theory' of the effects of educational inequality on social solidarity. Based on a wide-ranging theoretical critique, and extensive analysis of data on inequality and social attitudes for over 25 developed countries, the study shows how educational inequality undermines key aspects of societal cohesion such as social and institutional trust, civic cooperation and the rule of law. Through comparative examination of different models of lifelong learning and the knowledge society in Europe, the book demonstrates how more egalitarian education systems can promote both economic competitiveness and social cohesion. In contrast to current policy concerns with aggregate national skills levels, this book argues that it is not how much education a country has that matters for social cohesion, but how it is distributed and the cooperative values that people learn.