This book examines the educational philosophy of William Godwin, who is best known today as the founding father of philosophical anarchism, the husband of the feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, and the father of Mary Shelley. In the 1790s, after the French Revolution, he was regarded as the leading British political philosopher and novelist of the day. The book argues that his political philosophy can be appreciated best when attention is paid to the core role and nature of education. Graham Nutbrown posits that Godwin’s philosophy of education represents a road not taken, an alternative to the road followed by progressive educationalists who looked to Rousseau for inspiration, on the one hand, and to the nineteenth century advocates of state schooling on the other. Godwin’s direct influence on educational theory and practice today is limited, yet he anticipated many of its themes and commitments – in relation, for example, to pedagogical and curricular priorities and to educational justice. The book will appeal to academics and postgraduate students of philosophy of education, political philosophy, the long eighteenth century and Romanticism.

Graham Nutbrown is Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Bath, UK.