Abstract
Martyn Walker’s book revives the issue of the degree to which the Mechanics’ Institute Movement supported the further education of the working classes in 19th-century Britain. The evidence he presents is very detailed from a variety of sources, and the material relates to different aspects of the argument. The evidence consists of data on events and statistics from that period as well as the opinions of writers about the situation and various causes and effects. Terminology is clearly defined and distinctions noted, for example, between useful knowledge, scientific, and technical education. There was a great deal of activity linked to the Mechanics’ Institutes and the ways in which their problems were noted and solutions attempted provides an overall picture of the context in which these educational organizations operated.
Walker describes the Mechanics’ Institute Movement in chapter 2 and then explains the Scientific Education offered to 1850 and the Science and Technical Education provided to 1900 in chapters 3 and 4. Next, the following four chapters examine aspects of the Mechanics’ Institute Movement relevant to an appreciation of its work with and for the working classes: the issue of social class and the importance of membership, the central role of female membership of the Institutes, accommodation, and the use of the old and building of new structures and finally libraries, and the importance of reading. Specific references are then made in chapter 9 to three clusters of Mechanics’ Institutes in the northern part of Britain, covering the material presented in earlier chapters.
Then in the next to last chapter, there is a significant change in location. The focus is on areas to which the concept of Mechanics’ Institutes has been exported. The nations covered are the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The final chapter notes the arguments that have been offered to support the claim that the Mechanics’ Institute Movement provided a major contribution to working-class education between 1824 and circa 1900. The writer argues that the contribution was made by the Institutes and their members to support further education for the working classes.
The decision to include the experiences of some other nations raises the question: Why? Certainly, those in the listed countries were involved as were their British relatives, in solving problems that could be the cause of making the provision of more useful knowledge and technical education a more difficult process. But the “state of the union” in these countries (or colonies) was different from that of the Mother Country. The United States was more advanced than Canada, Australia, or New Zealand but their colonists were “Brits” and they had carried the concept of the Mechanics’ Institute, and its library and lectures, with them and wanted it as a reminder of the Old Country. However, there was also a challenge to ensure it was going to work in their new home country. Much of the discussion in the early chapters on scientific education may have been meaningless to those in the colonies. Sydney and Melbourne Universities were not established and there was no technical education. British experiences may have been used to further the provision of technical education for the working classes in the United States and colonies mentioned. But as explained by Walker, responding to the special local problems in British towns and villages was a key factor that those in the colonies may have adapted to their own circumstances.
The material presented by Walker of the context in which educational development was debated and organized in Britain provides clear evidence that there were contributions from many sources that assisted the slow development of further and/or technical education in the 19th century, especially for the working classes. The quality of Walker’s data and arguments suggests that the issue regarding the working classes and this further education provision has been settled. However, by spreading the coverage of the discussion of this expansion of further education for the working classes to other locations, Walker is offering a challenge to those of these other locations—the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand—to resolve the question and/or issue of the degree to which the development of this important further education for men and women in the working classes was influenced by the sorts of programs and activities that were used with success by the British over the decades of the 19th century.
Walker is to the congratulated for providing a solution to the problem of how further education for the working classes was introduced in Britain during the century but in addition for posing a question as to the degree that similar, or different, methods were used to promote this further education for the working classes in these other locations. Reading Walker’s book may provide some interesting further research for those in the “other locations” mentioned in the book.