W. JOHN MORGAN is Professor of Comparative Education and Director of the Centre for Comparative Education Research, University of Nottingham. His research interests are in the comparative history of politics of education and social policy. His most recent book is Law and Opinion in 20th Century Britain and Ireland (ed. with S.W. Livingstone) Palgrave, 2003.

• Preface Acknowledgements PART I: FROM CLASSICAL MARXISM TO STATE SOCIALISM Prologue: Independent Worker's Education Proletariat and Praxis Class and Party PART II: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISTS Proletarian Education: John Maclean Cultural Politics: Antonio Gramsci Political Commissar and Cultural Critic: Georg Lukàcs Prelude to Cultural Revolution: Mao Zedong PART III: SOVIET COMMUNISTS Political Education and the Vanguard Party: Vladimir Illich Lenin Not by Politics Alone: Leon Trotsky Social Teacher and Director of Culture: Maxim Gorky Stalinists and After: Epilogue Notes and References Index