This text traces the rise and decline of the British autodidact from the pre-industrial era to the 20th century. Using research techniques and a vast range of unexpected sources such as workers' memoirs, social surveys and library registers, Jonathan Rose seeks to answer such questions as which books people read, how and why they educated themselves, and what they knew. In the process this account of the life of the mind reveals much about working-class politics, ideology, popular culture and social relationships.