McCulloch, Gary;
Canales, Antonio;
Ku, Hsiao-Yuh;
(2023)
Brian Simon and the Struggle for Education.
[Book].
UCL Press: London, UK.
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Abstract
This is the first full-length study of the life and career of Brian Simon (1915-2002), leading Marxist intellectual and historian of education in twentieth-century Britain. Using documentary sources that have only recently become publicly available, it reveals the remarkably broad range of Simon’s life as student, soldier and school teacher, Communist Party activist, and educational academic, campaigner and reformer. In a sympathetic biography that yet retains critical distance, the authors analyse Simon’s contribution to Marxism and the Communist Party. They explore the influence of both on his work as a historian of education and trace the significance of his Marxist beliefs, political associations and historical approach to the cause of educational reform. In so doing, they consider the full nature and limitations of Simon’s achievements in his struggle for education. Unlike many Marxist scholars he remained loyal to the Communist Party in the 1950s, which damaged his reputation as a public intellectual. Nevertheless, his support for comprehensive education helped to promote egalitarian educational reforms in Britain, although he was later unable to provide sufficient resistance to the 1988 Education Reform Act and to a decline in the position of the comprehensive schools. In all this, the significance of Simon’s family, and especially his relationship with his wife Joan is to the fore. Joan and Brian forged a formidable 60-year partnership, in politics and the Communist Party as well as in life, that lasted until Brian’s death in January 2002.
| Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| Title: | Brian Simon and the Struggle for Education |
| ISBN: | 9781787359819 |
| ISBN-13: | 9781787359819 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.14324/111.9781787359819 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787359819 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This book is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: McCulloch, G., Canales, A. F. and K, H-Y, HS. 2023. Brian Simon and the Struggle for Education. London: UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787359819 Further details about Creative Commons licences are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ |
| Keywords: | education history, UK, Communist Party, comprehensive education, academic biography, Marxist intellectuals, educational reform |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10176795 |
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