"A survey of independent working-class radical education and politics in England from 1848, the year of revolutions, to the passage of the 1870 Education Act." "Taking as a starting point Richard Johnson's analysis of 'really useful knowledge', Keith Flett argues that radical ideas and radical working-class education and schools, far from disappearing after 1848, in fact flourished." "The main sources used are the late Chartist and radical working-class press, focusing on radical meetings and events and the ideas that formed them."--BOOK JACKET.