Socialism and Education in Britain, 1883-1902 (review)

This provocative book considers the educational policies promoted by British socialists in the late nineteenth century with an eye to illuminating their overarching commitments. In doing so, it challenges a good deal of received wisdom about the early history of modern British socialism.

Earlier studies such as David Howell's British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888-1906 (1983) conclude that late-nineteenth-century British socialism shared much common ideological ground with radical liberalism and that Marxist influence was restricted. Although British socialists advanced a forceful ethical critique of the existing capitalist order, Howell suggests, for the most part they did not develop a socio-economic analysis that posited a need for systemic change. Once socialists committed themselves to gaining political influence within existing institutions, dreams of a new social order were laid aside.

Kevin Manton contests these conclusions. Viewing William Morris's Marxist- inspired vision as "representative of the [socialist] mainstream of this day" (9), Manton depicts late-nineteenth-century socialists as broadly committed to participatory democratic ideals, bent on both a material and ethical transformation of society, and little influenced by liberal currents of thought. According to Manton, these orientations cut across socialist party lines. Alternative views were advanced by prominent figures such as the Fabian Society's Sidney Webb but were unrepresentative of rank-and-file opinion.

Manton sees British socialism as undergoing a sea change in the early twentieth century and subsequently seeking to secure incremental improvements for the working class within existing structures. This change was exemplified in the field of education by a shift away from efforts to create a new system of free, compulsory, secular, democratically controlled common schools providing secondary as well as primary education— efforts which Manton views as threatening existing social and political structures—to attempts to secure more places for working-class children in what were basically elitist grammar schools: in effect working within the framework of a class-divided society. This change, Manton argues, owed less to the ideological orientations and organizational weaknesses of late-nineteenth-century socialism than to a trend toward increasing state centralization. In the case of education, the crucial development was the 1902 Education Act, which abolished locally elected school boards (through which socialists had previously sought influence) and placed elementary and secondary schools under county authorities that were not subject to direct democratic control.

Manton's study draws on a wide array of contemporary sources, including local newspapers and other periodicals, private papers, and publications ranging from general socialist manifestos to more specialized tracts on educational questions. The book is organized [Begin Page 755] thematically. It begins by discussing socialists' generally negative perceptions of the family as an educational institution and their opposition to religious instruction, using evidence drawn from contemporary utopian novels to good effect. Next, Manton considers socialists' attitudes towards teachers and their trade unions. Socialists, he indicates, frequently condemned both working-class parents and teachers for exploitative, brutal behavior towards children, ascribing their behavior in part to environmental influences but insisting that there remained scope for individual moral agency. The discussion then turns to educational programs and policies promoted by socialists, including a valuable account of the work of two hitherto little-known socialist educators, F. J. Gould and Harry Lowerison. Emphasizing that socialists addressed both the moral and material needs of children, Manton discusses a broad swath of issues, ranging from socialists' views on physical education and free school meals to their quest for a more humane pedagogy (and opposition to corporal punishment) and efforts to nurture a cooperative ethos. Manton considers socialist support for science-based technical education in some detail, interpreting it as part of a strategic commitment to revalue the working class and the status of work. The final chapters focus on socialists' policies in relation to the school boards and on their mixed reaction to the Education Act, with an eye to exploring their...