Witness History10 Sep 2025

The story behind The Peter Principle book

In 1969, a satirical book, The Peter Principle, suggested promotion led to incompetence.

It was written by a Canadian Professor of Education, Dr Laurence J Peter and playwright Raymond Hull.

The book was a parody of management theory, but its core message struck a chord with many: “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence".

It became an instant classic, selling millions of copies around the world.

In 2021, Alex Last told the story of how Dr Peter came up with his theory using an archive interview he gave to the BBC in 1974.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: Dr Laurence J Peter. Credit: Getty Images)

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