Anarchism and Romanticism: aspects of the educational thought of Herbert Read

Abstract

This study is an attempt to elucidate the place Herbert Read's writings have in both the anarchist and romantic traditions, paying special, but not exclusive attention to his educational writings. Aspects of the political theory which particularly relate to education are discussed. Special attention is paid to the questions of power and authority in anarchist theory, anarchist views on nature and human nature, and anarchist ethical theories. This section concludes with a discussion of anarchist writings on education. Read's political writings are discussed from two points of view: the traditional anarchist elements in them, and the special contribution that Read made in his theories of the role of art and the artist in a libertarian society. After a brief section on the problems of definition of the term "Romanticism," the romantic nature of Read's ideas are explained. Two important notions here are the organic view of nature, society and art, which most writers agree is central to Romanticism, and the romantic emphasis on "non-rational" experience, or, as it is usually called, the "imagination". Read's specifically educational writings are treated from the twin viewpoints of anarchism and romanticism. Two elements are important here: the notion of child art, which has deep roots in the romantic vision of childhood as a time of innocence and fresh perceptions, and Read's theory of moral education through art, particularly his notion of "morale", which is deeply anarchist in its intentions. Throughout the study, other writers who had an important influence on Read, such as Kropotkin, Ruskin and Coleridge, as well as others with whom his ideas might be usefully compared, such as Godwin, Tolstoy and Kierkegaard, are discussed. Finally, by way of conclusion, some contemporary developments in society as well as education, which point in directions Read would probably have approved of are outlined.