ramón de la sagra: early spanish socialism and educational reform

Abstract

The present contribution analyses the figure of the ideologist, social theoretician, economist and international comparative education scholar, Ramón de la Sagra (1798-1871). Originally from Galicia and having begun his university studies in Santiago, he soon moved to Madrid, where he would become one of the founders of the Ateneo. University professor and naturalist in Havana. Observer of social reforms in the U.S.A. (1835). Later, he travelled through Europe comparing various attempts at social reform. Writer. Scholar and propagator, as well as a keen attender at intellectual salons, alongside Arhens, Cousin, Hippolyte Colins, Engels, or Proudhon (with whom he was involved in a variety of social undertakings in Paris between 1848 to 1849), as well as other well-known characters in the field of political economy and of social theory. Liberal Spanish member of parliament. Promoter of the first infant schools in Madrid (1839-1842). An idealistic reformer: an attractive and complex figure. One of the most outstanding Spanish intellectuals of the 19th Century but until now largely unknown.