Francisco Ferrer Guardia

Francisco Ferrer Guardia (1859–1909) was a Spanish anarchist. Following the declaration of martial law in 1909 during the Tragic Week, having been found guilty under a military tribunal in which no solid evidence was brought against him, Francisco Ferrer was arrested and then executed by firing squad at Montjuich Fortress. He was the founder of la Escuela Moderna (the Modern School), a noncompulsory primary and secondary school. During Ferrer’s life, la Escuela Moderna attracted international attention and prompted visits from George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy was so inspired by Ferrer’s school that he started his own in Russia, which in 1921 served as inspiration for A.S. Neill’s creation of Summerhill School in Suffolk, England.

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Praise

“A thorough and balanced collection of the writings of the doyen of myriad horizontal educational projects in Spain and more still across the world. Equally welcome are the well-researched introduction and the afterword that underline both the multiplicity of anarchist perspectives on education and social transformation and the complexity of Ferrer’s thinking.”
—Chris Ealham, author of Living Anarchism: Jose Peirats and the Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalist Movement

“This volume brings together for the first time a comprehensive collection of Ferrer’s own writings, documenting the daily life and aims of the Escuela Moderna, alongside reflections, often critical, by contemporary anarchists and other radical thinkers. Together with the editors’ thoughtful Introduction, the result is a fascinating collection—essential reading for anyone keen to go beyond the image of Ferrer the martyr of libertarian education and to understand the perennial moral and political questions at the heart of any project of education for freedom.”
—Judith Suissa, author of Anarchism and Education: A Philosophical Perspective

“Bray and Haworth have here provided a great gift to the history of liberatory education and to its possible social futures, as this book is sure to become a definitive text on the origins and development of the international Modern School movement.”
—Richard Kahn, Antioch University Los Angeles

“Part martyr, part visionary, Francisco Ferrer and the Modern School Movement he created have continued to preoccupy educational reformers and political activists despite or because of Ferrer’s execution by a repressive Spanish government in 1909. Revealing Ferrer’s flaws, Mark Bray and Robert Haworth nevertheless evoke a person and a period when political visionaries and educational reformers promised and almost succeeded in transforming civic life in Europe and the Americas.”
—Temma Kaplan, distinguished professor emerita, Rutgers University

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Book Events

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Reviews

• Francesc Ferrer i Guardia: Anarchist Education and the Revolutionary General Strike

A Twitter Review on Black Rose

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Interviews

• Interchange – The Martyrdom of Francisco Ferrer: A Conversation with Mark Bray
• Watch Mark Bray and Rob Haworth on Francisco Ferrer
• Mark Bray talking about Francisco Ferrer and the Founding of the Modern School on A Better World

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