Episode 85. Radicals: The Working Classes and the Making of Modern Britain

SYNOPSIS

Published in 2026 by Yale University Press, Radicals is the latest book by Dr. Geoff Andrews, who has written widely on the Left and the Labour Movement for the New Statesman and Prospect amongst other publications. It demonstrates how a non-dogmatic British socialism developed out of the working-class values of mutualism, co-operation and self-reliance.

The episode focuses upon Dr. Andrews’ personal experience. After failing the 11-plus examination and leaving school at 16, he was helped by the labour movement into higher education in the early 1980s by winning a place at Ruskin College, which was founded in 1899 to provide working-class men with educational opportunities in the city of Oxford.

The conversation covers the history of the college, its internal disputes and their resolutions and the liberal tutorial system which saw Dr. Andrews study with David Selbourne and Raphael Samuel. It looks then at the development of “History from Below” a term coined by E. P. Thompson but developed by Samuel in Ruskin’s History Workshop programme that brought grassroots history to the fore. The British Women’s Liberation movement also found an early expression at a Ruskin College conference in 1970.

GUESTS

Dr. Geoff Andrews entered Ruskin College, Oxford at the age of 22, having applied whilst working for the Post Office in London. After studying politics and history for its social studies diploma, he completed a history degree at University, College, Cardiff. An Open University tutor since 1991, Dr. Andrews has taught for several years at the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education.

Simon’s interview with Geoff Andrews was recorded in Bloomsbury, London on 20 April 2026.