"Looking the Fascist Tiger in the Eye"? Workers’ Education and the Approach of World War Two in England

Between World War One and World War Two in England two groups, the Worker's Educational Association (WEA) and their rivals, who believed in independent working‐class education (IWCE), set out to provide education for the working class. The views of these two organisations towards international events in the nineteen thirties were illustrated by articles in their respective journals, “The Highway” and “Plebs”. Theseviews reflected their basic philosophy: the WEA emphasised the need for preserving the freedom of speech; their rivals denounced capitalism and imperialism. This article considers the origins and development of both the WEA and IWCE in order to explain their respective attitudes and then examines how the Spanish Civil War, the Munich crisis and Czechoslovakia and finally the outbreak of war were depicted and debated in the pages of “The Highway” and “Plebs”

Ancient history · Capitalism · Economic history · Economics · First world war · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Working class · World War II · Historical Education and Society · Historical Education Studies Worldwide · History · History of Education in Spain · Law