One hundred years ago the North East was at the forefront of independent working class education as self-educated miners and shipyard workers sought to understand the conditions in which they lived. There were arguments, naturally, over who controlled adult education. Robert Turnbull has written the first book on the long neglected activity of The Plebs League and the Labour College Movement in the North East which sought a politically committed answer. Left for the Rising Sun, Right for Swan Hunter reflects the arguments of the day and celebrates the memory of those autodidacts who took part in the long struggle for an education that was otherwise denied them.