History and Education

Drawing on Marx and Lenin, the author views education as a mechanism through which both sides of the global class war, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, have advanced their causes. He discusses the global, historical development of capitalism and the relationship of those subject to it and outlines a communist pedagogy based on the idea that education is tied to the basic structures of production and oppressed nations. He addresses Lenin's theory of state and revolution, Harry Haywood, and the black communist tradition in the US, as well as the settler state, critiques of Marx, and the internal contradictions of capital, showing how the working-class liberation from capitalism can only be achieved through revolutionary struggle. He then details a new approach to educational historiography and two case studies of the history of US education that were important in the global class war (the colonial and common school eras); the imperialist anti-communist propaganda in critical pedagogy; Lenin's communist pedagogy and contributions to understanding trade unions and the anti-union legislation in the US; and Marx's General Law of Accumulation. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Curry Stephenson Malott is a professor of educational foundations and a union leader at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. He is the co-author of Marx, Capital, and Education: Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Becoming (Peter Lang, 2015). As a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation Dr. Malott is an activist in the proletarian camp of the global class war.