This short account of R.J.W. (Dick) Selleck's career and research suggests how he reoriented study of the history of education in Australia. Using a historicist method, he examined educational theories and practices to elucidate the educational purposes they were intended to serve. Through major biographies of leading educationists and biographical studies of teachers he broadened the social and cultural dimension of educational history. More recently he has applied the same rigorous scholarship to higher education.