ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 addresses the revival of the Spanish anarchist movement and its adoption of education as a revolutionary strategy. From 1899 to 1906 anarchist cultural practices flourished, driven in large part by a dramatic expansion of the movement’s periodical press and a heightened emphasis on the need for ‘enlightenment’ as preparation for the revolution. Studies of education in this period have focused almost exclusively on the pioneering anarchist educator Francisco Ferrer and his Escuela Moderna in Barcelona. This chapter seeks to situate Ferrer and anarchist educational theory within the broader movement. Chapter 3 also engages with the early development of anarchist-feminism, which has previously been mentioned only as a prelude to studies of the ‘Mujeres Libres’ feminist group of the 1930s. The periodical press was the site where all the many strands of anarchist cultural development came together, allowing for an examination of how these aspects of the anarchist cultural programme integrated and interacted with the movement. Print carried anarchism into new areas, and helped in the establishment of cultural spaces and schools which, in turn, formed the foundations of the movement in localities across the whole of Spain.
