Making Socialists : Mary Bridges Adams and the Fight for Knowledge and Power, 1855–1939

Making Socialists combines a biographical study of a (nowadays) virtually unknown woman with an original exploration of several major themes in late nineteenth and early twentieth century political and educational history. More than a local politician, Mary Bridges Adams was among the dynamic late nineteenth-century women activists who sought to transform government policy through socialist initiatives, with the ultimate (utopian) aim of creating a social nation. The author has assembled a thorough range of sources, including new materials that will bring fresh insights to this biography and more generally to Labour Party and socialist historiography, well-studied topics. The people Adams knew and the circles in which she travelled are particularly attractive features of this book. Foes thought her an awful woman: friends like George Bernard Shaw remembered the power of her oratory. Placed against the circumstances in which she lived and presented as part of a militant and anti-capitalist tradition within labour history, her life story contributes to new ways of seeing both socialist and feminist politics. Front matter Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction: biography and history Being Mary Rebel communities Labour politics in London Rethinking socialism and education Education and class struggle The disinherited child and the politics of voice Bebel House and the political education of working women Revolutionary politics and the First World War Reflections, connections and Utopian visions Appendix 1 The Daltry family tree Appendix 2 The Adams family tree Appendix 3 Mary Bridges Adams (née Daltry) time-line Appendix 4 Biographical notes Bibliography Index