Originally published on October 18, 2021 (Episode 228)
Introduction
Joseph Wright, a boy from the West Riding of Yorkshire, entered a factory at the age of six and could not read until he was fifteen. Inspired by a co-worker who read him news of the Franco-Prussian War, Wright pursued literacy with remarkable determination. He learned with the Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress as his texts, attended night school for six pence a week, practiced shorthand in Methodist chapels by taking down the sermons, organized a Sunday school lending library, and even founded his own night school when he was eighteen. By twenty-one, he had saved enough for a term at Heidelberg, walking 250 miles from the port of Antwerp to save money. Eventually earning a doctorate in comparative linguistics from Heildelberg, he became Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford (1901–1925), a pioneer in dialect studies, and among many other things a teacher of J.R.R. Tolkien.
While Wright’s academic career was unusual, his path to education—self-taught literacy, night schools, Sunday school libraries—was typical for many working-class Britons. This is the story Jonathan Rose tells in his powerful and monumental book The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes. First published in 2001, it won the Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History, the Longman-History Today Historical Book of the Year Prize and the British Council Prize. Now in its third edition from Yale University Press, it remains a touchstone in the history of reading, education, and culture.
About the Guest
Jonathan Rose is William R. Kenan Professor of History at Drew University. He served as founding president of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing and as president of the Northeast Victorian Studies Association.
For Further Investigation
Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, 3rd ed. (Yale University Press, 2021)
Jonathan Rose on the genesis of this book, and what he might change about it
💬 Listen & Discuss
What do stories like Joseph Wright’s reveal about the hunger for knowledge in the 19th century—and about our assumptions regarding access to education today? Share your thoughts in the comments, and consider forwarding this episode to a friend interested in the history of ideas.
