The Little Red Schoolbook in Translation: Education and Activism in 1970s Britain

This article examines the international career of a Danish book written in the aftermath of the student revolts of 1968 and the early days of the children’s rights movement. The Little Red Schoolbook was a subversive guide to sexuality, drugs, and homework. Countercultural or communist publishers translated it into other European languages in the early 1970s. The English translation was expanded by a group of teachers and comprehensive school students and linked to current debates about comprehensive schools, private education, and corporal punishment in Britain. Where the Danish text included the contact details of only a handful of organisations, the British edition was full of specifics about local connections, offering readers the opportunity to connect with networks of activist groups and support services. The Danish original combined elements of the genres of the manifesto and the sex advice book; the British version added elements of another genre, the activist’s handbook. The British Little Red Schoolbook thus embedded itself within the practices of consumer activism and organising that ‘redefined British politics’ in the post-war period.