ABSTRACT
THERE are two main reasons why an account of adult education in Britain should begin more than a century and a half ago. In the first place, this movement was part of the revolution which transformed a country of peasant farmers and small-scale craftsmen., loosely linked by commercial interests which sat lightly upon a customary economy, into a great industrial democracy. In the second place, if the movement as it exists today is to be understood, it must be seen in the light of its past history and against the background of social change.
