Victorian Agitator

Holyoake was a classic example of Gramsci’s working-class ‘organic intellectual’. An Owenite ‘social missionary’, he became a Radical Liberal, Secularist and Co-operator, responsible for the legend of ‘the Rochdale Pioneers’. A journalist, thinker, multiple ‘joiner’ and promoter of freedom in many settings, Holyoake was also a highly-readable stylist. An influential 19th century public figure, his life and work have recently been neglected among co-operators as by well historians. The case for reviving work on his ideas is powerful.