The Popular Universities at the end of the XIXth century are a major reference in the history of popular education. The movement of the Popular Universities attracted militant workers and intellectual —writers, scientists, teachers and artists—, to educational dynamics which owe a lot to the Dreyfus Affair. This encounter of the morning coat with the workman's overalls didn't last long. The Popular Universities died because they were unable to imagine this mutual education which was everybody's dream. This failure marked people's minds for a long time, and the period between the two wars, full of experiences of working-class and proletarian education, constantly refers to the Popular Universities of the 1900^ to find a model to follow or to reject.
Las Universidades Populares de finales del siglo xix constituyen una referenda esencial en la historia de la educación popular. El movimiento de las Universidades Populares supo atraer a militantes obreros y a intelectuales —escritores, científicos, profesores y artistas— en la dinámica educativa activada por el Affaire Dreyfus. Tal encuentro entre la chaqueta y la blusa obrera no duró mucho tiempo. Las Universidades Populares murieron porque eran incapaces de imaginar la educación mutua que era el sueño de todos. Este fracaso marcó las conciencias populares durante mucho tiempo, y en el período de entreguerras, repleto de experiencias de educación obrera y proletaria, las Universidades Populares de los años 1900 sirvieron de modelo a seguir o a rechazar.
