Ronald Knox, Classical Education, and World War I

Ronald Knox (1888–1957) was one of the most brilliant of a brilliant generation of English classicists. He was also a member of the English generation that was shattered by World War I. As his friends were fighting and dying in France, Knox himself took a leave of absence from his fellowship at an empty Oxford and spent 1915–1916 teaching Classics at Shrewsbury School. In my presentation, I’ll reconstruct Knox’s revolutionary teaching at Shrewsbury and the role that Classics played in giving his life meaning and purpose during the war years. Knox’s approach to the classroom and to Classics still has much to teach us: about Edwardian classical education and classical reception, about pedagogy, and maybe even about life.