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Worker Education in England and France, 1800–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Carter Jefferson
Carter Jefferson
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
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Extract

Professor J.F.C. Harrison's recently-published book, Learning and Living, 1790–1960, underscores the sometimes neglected fact that strikes, agitation and political action are not the only ways to change a society, even though they are usually the most spectacular. For nearly two centuries multitudes of Englishmen put some of their faith in a number of less direct processes, all of which may be categorized as adult education. The men and women who devoted themselves to this work had different aims and used different methods, but all of them sought to educate grown men, particularly factory workers, and all of them believed their efforts would somehow make England a better place. This movement was not unique; in France, for example, something similar took place. Unfortunately, no one has studied the French movement as Professor Harrison has the English. Enough information on the history of worker education in France is available, however, to make possible a comparison of the movements in the two countries and thus help to confirm or bring into question some accepted propositions concerning differences in their political and religious attitudes and climates of opinion.

Type
Worker Education
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , April 1964 , pp. 345 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1964

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References

1 Subtitled A Study in the History of the English Adult Education Movement (Toronto, 1961).Google Scholar

2 From Self-Help (1859), quoted in Harrison, p. 39.

3 Wade, John, History of the Middle and Working Classes (1833), quoted in Harrison, p. 77, n. 5.Google Scholar

4 Quoted from a broadsheet sponsored by Joseph Dawson (1833), in Harrison, p. 81.

5 Quoted from Mansbridge, , The Kingdom of the Mind (1944), pp. 1–11Google Scholar, in Harrison, p. 263.

6 Horrabin, J.F., “Plebs League”'. W.E.A. Education Year Book, 1918, pp. 390–91, quoted in Harrison, p. 295.Google Scholar

7 Harrison, pp. 297–98.

8 Ibid., pp. 312–13.

9 Most of the general histories of France or studies of particular periods give synopses of developments in education, but there is no general history of French education; a concise outline has been provided by Glatigny, Michel, in his Histoire de l'enseignement en France (“Que sais-je?”, no. 893; Paris, 1949).Google Scholar

10 Quoted in Levasseur, Emile, Histoire des classes ouvrières et de I'industrie en France de 1789 à 1870 (2d ed.; Paris, 1903–1904), I, 91.Google Scholar

11 Quoted ibid., pp. 660–61.

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22 Ibid.

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25 Ibid.; Reybaud, Louis, Etudes sur le régime de manufactures: Condition des ouvriers en soie (Paris, 1859), p. 178.Google Scholar

25 Duveau, Georges, La Pensée ouvrière sur I'Education pendant la Seconde République et le Second Empire (Paris, 1948), p. 62.Google Scholar

27 E.g., in Audiganne, , Mémoires d'un ouvrier de Paris (Paris, 1873)Google Scholar, passim. (The worker whose memoirs these are supposed to be belonged to such a society.)

28 Levasseur, I, 661.

29 Ibid., p. 148.

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31 Festy, Octave, Le Mouvement ouvrier au debut de la monarchic de juillet (1830–34) (Paris, 1908), p. 330.Google Scholar

32 Duveau, Pensée ouvrière, p. 50.

33 Ibid., p. 49.

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35 Ibid., pp. 51–53, 60–62.

36 Ibid., Ch. III.

37 Levasseur, II, 756, n. 1.

38 The quotation about bishops is a paraphrase of the words of the philosopher Victor Cousin, quoted in Dansette, Adrien, Histoire religieuse de la France contemporaine, I (Paris, 1948), 445.Google Scholar

39 His remarks on such courses are in vol. II, pp. 352–67.

40 An example was the school of drawing started by bronze workers in 1836 (Robinet, Jean, L'Aspect social de I'industrie parisienne du bronze [Paris, 1936], pp. 77–78)Google Scholar; carpenters also sponsored vocational courses (Duveau, , La Vie ouvrière en France sous le Second Empire [Paris, 1946], p. 452).Google Scholar

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47 Paris, June 19, 1866, ibid., I, 231.

48 Quoted in Maritch, Sreten, Histoire dn mouvement social sous le Second Empire à Lyon (Paris, 1930), pp. 177–78.Google Scholar

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50 Ibid., p. 179.

51 Ibid., pp. 179–80.

52 Levasseur, II, 757.

53 Maritch, pp. 180–82.

54 Ibid., p. 181; Levasseur, II, 757.

55 Levasseur, II, 756.

56 Arrête of April 4, 1882, Journal officiel de la Republique française, April 7, 1882, p. 1884.

57 Decree and arrête of July 22, 1884, ibid., July 24, 1884, pp. 3961–62.

58 Decree of Jan. 18, 1887, ibid., Jan. 20, 1887, p. 341.

59 Decree of Jan. 11, 1895, ibid., Jan. 12, 1895, pp. 189–90.

60 Decree of Jan. 24, 1896, ibid., Jan. 26, 1896, p. 475.

61 Montreuil, Jean, Histoire du mouvement ouvrier en France des origines ê nos fours (Paris, n.d.,), pp. 154–72.Google Scholar

62 In his Histoire des Bourses du Travail: Origines, institutions, avenir (Paris, 1902), pp. 119–26.Google Scholar

63 Rollet, Henri, L'Action social des catholiques en France (1871–1901) (Paris, 1947), pp. 414–18.Google Scholar

64 Breunig's, Charles unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, “The Sillon of Marc Sangnier: Christian–Democracy in France (1894–1910)” (Harvard University, 1953)Google Scholar, the only monographic study of the movement, includes a summary of the educational aspects of the Sillon without much detail; see also my article, “The Sillon: An Experiment in Popular Education”, which is to appear in the June, 1964, issue of the Journal of the Rutgers University Library.

65 See, e.g., his Une Méthode d'éducation démocratique: Cercles d'Etudes et Instituts Populaires (Paris [1906]), p. 1;Google Scholar also Paul Bureau, “La Vanite de la politique”, Le Sillon, May 25, 1902, pp. 374–82.

66 For an example, see its use in fidouard Petit, “Rapport au ministre de l'instruction publique, des beaux-arts et des cultes”, J.O., August 11, 1896, p. 4609.

67 No detailed study of the U.P. movement has been made; for its origins, see Turmann, Max, L'Education populaire: Les Oeuvres complémentaires de l'école (3d ed.; Paris, 1907), pp. 357–60;Google Scholar also Kownacki, A. (ed.), Histoire de douze ans (1898–1910) (Paris, 1910)Google Scholar; and Rivaud, A., “Les University populaires”, Revue Politique et parlementaire, XXV (1900), 485–507.Google Scholar

68 Delphon de Vissec, L., “La Crise des universites populaires”, Revue Bleue, Jan. 30, 1904, p. 138.Google Scholar

69 “Les Universites populaires, 1900–1901: I. Paris et banlieue”, Cahiers de la Quinzaine, Feb. 27, 1902, pp. 47–48; “Les Universités populaires, 1900–1901: II. Départements”, C. de la Q., July 22, 1902, pp. 146–47.

70 Kownacki, p. 7.

71 Ibid., pp. 7–9; Herriot, , In Those Days: Before the First World War, trans, by de Milly, A. (New York, n.d.), p. 148.Google Scholar

72 For his attitude see, e.g., his letter to Péguy published in “Les Intellectuels devant le socialisme”, C. de la Q., March 19, 1901, pp. 21–35, and his “Les Universités populaires et le mouvement ouvrier”, C. de la Q., Oct. 17, 1901.

73 Péguy's famous essay, Notre Jeunesse, published in the C. de la Q. on July 17, 1910, is a particularly poignant evocation of the atmosphere of these years; it was he who first spoke of the “mystique” of the Dreyfusards and its degeneration into a “politique”.

74 Kownacki, pp. 15–16; Paul Bourget used this incident, changing little besides thenames, in his novel L'Etape.

75 Kownacki, pp. 17–18.

76 Interview in Le Temps, April 12, 1900; see also the article by Lafargue, Paul in Le Socialiste: Organe central du Parti Ouvrier frangais, March 11, 1900.Google Scholar

77 Halédvy, , “Un Episode”, in his Luttes et Problèmes (Paris, 1911)Google Scholar; Rolland, , Jean-Cristophe à Paris: La Foire sur la place (3d ed.; Paris, 1908), pp. 215–17.Google Scholar