DOCSLIB.ORG

Interpreting the Labour Party

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Interpreting the Labour Party callaghan cvr 9/3/03 3:01 PM Page 1 Interpreting the Labour Party consists of twelve essays on the principal theLabourParty Interpreting Interpreting thinkers and schools of thought concerned with the political and historical development of the Labour Party and Labour movement. It is an examination of the major methodologies and approaches in Labour studies the Labour Party and a critical evaluation and appreciation of much of the most interesting scholarship in this area of study. The essays are written by contributors who have devoted many years to the study of the Labour Party, the trade union movement and the various ideologies associated with them. The book begins with an in-depth analysis of how to study the Labour Party, and goes on to examine key periods in the development of the ideologies to which the party has subscribed. This includes the ideology of inter-war Labourism, the rival post-war perspectives on Labourism, the New Left, and the ‘contentious alliance’ of unions with Labour. Key thinkers analysed include Henry Pelling, Ross McKibbin, Ralph Miliband, Lewis Minkin, David Marquand, Perry Anderson and Tom Nairn. Each chapter situates its subject matter in the context of a broader intellectual legacy, including the works of, among others, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Theodore Rothstein, Stuart Hall and Samuel Beer. The book will be of interest to undergraduate students of British politics and political theory, and to academics concerned with Labour politics and history, trade union history and politics, research methodology and political analysis. John Callaghan is Professor of Politics at the University of Wolverhampton. Steven Fielding is Professor of Contemporary Political History in the School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History and Associate Director of the European Studies Research Institute at the University of Salford. Steve Ludlam is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield. and Callaghan, Fielding Ludlam eds Approaches to Labour politics and history Edited by John Callaghan, Steven Fielding and Steve Ludlam ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page i Interpreting the Labour Party ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page ii Critical Labour Movement Studies Series Series editors John Callaghan Steven Fielding Steve Ludlam ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page iii Interpreting the Labour Party Approaches to Labour politics and history edited by John Callaghan Steven Fielding Steve Ludlam Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page iv Copyright © Manchester University Press 2003 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may be reproduced wholly or in part without the express permission in writing of both author and publisher. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 0 7190 6718 9 hardback 0 7190 6719 7 paperback First published 2003 111009080706050403 10987654321 Typeset by Northern Phototypesetting Co. Ltd., Bolton, Lancs. Printed in Great Britain by CPI, Bath ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page v 2 Contents John Callaghan, Steven Fielding and Steve Ludlam Series editors’ foreword page vi Acknowledgements vii Contributors ix Introduction John Callaghan, Steven Fielding and Steve Ludlam 1 1 Understanding Labour’s ideological trajectory Nick Randall 8 2 ‘What kind of people are you?’ Labour, the people and the ‘new political history’ Lawrence Black 23 3 ‘Labourism’ and the New Left Madeleine Davis 39 4 Ralph Miliband and the Labour Party: from Parliamentary Socialism to ‘Bennism’ Michael Newman 57 5 The continuing relevance of the Milibandian perspective David Coates and Leo Panitch 71 6 An exceptional comrade? The Nairn–Anderson interpretation Mark Wickham-Jones 86 7 Class and politics in the work of Henry Pelling Alastair J. Reid 101 8 Ross McKibbin: class cultures, the trade unions and the Labour Party John Callaghan 116 9 The Progressive Dilemma and the social democratic perspective Steven Fielding and Declan McHugh 134 10 Too much pluralism, not enough socialism: interpreting the unions–party link Steve Ludlam 150 11 Lewis Minkin and the party–unions link Eric Shaw 166 12 How to study the Labour Party: contextual, analytical and theoretical issues Colin Hay 182 Guide to further reading 197 Index 203 ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page vi 2 Series editors’ foreword John Callaghan, Steven Fielding and Steve Ludlam The start of the twenty-first century is superficially an inauspicious time to study labour movements. Political parties once associated with the working class have seemingly embraced capitalism. The trade unions with which these parties were once linked have suffered near-fatal reverses. The industrial proletariat looks both divided and in rapid decline. The development of multi-level governance, prompted by ‘globalisation’ has furthermore apparently destroyed the institutional context for advancing the labour ‘interest’.Many consequently now look on terms such as the ‘working class’,‘socialism’ and the ‘labour movement’ as politically and historically redundant. The purpose of this series is to give a platform to those students of labour movements who challenge, or develop, established ways of thinking and so demonstrate the continued vitality of the subject and the work of those interested in it. For despite appearances many social democratic parties remain important competitors for national office and proffer distinctive programmes. Unions still impede the free flow of ‘market forces’. If workers are a more diverse body and have exchanged blue collars for white, insecurity remains an everyday problem. The new institutional and global context is moreover as much of an opportunity as a threat. Yet, it cannot be doubted that compared to the immediate post- 1945 period, at the beginning of the new millennium what many still refer to as the ‘labour movement’ is much less influential. Whether this should be considered a time of retreat or reconfiguration is unclear – and a question the series aims to clarify The series will not only give a voice to studies of particular national bodies but will also promote comparative works that contrast experiences across time and geography. This entails taking due account of the political, economic and cultural settings in which labour movements have operated. In particular this involves taking the past seriously as a way of understanding the present as well as utilising sympathetic approaches drawn from sociology, economics and elsewhere. ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page vii 2 Acknowledgements John Callaghan, Steven Fielding and Steve Ludlam Nick Randall wishes to acknowledge an ESRC Postgraduate Training Award (R00429634225), which allowed him to conduct the doctoral research on Labour’s ideological dynamics on which his chapter is based. In addition he would like to thank Martin Burch, David Coates, Colin Hay, Steve Ludlam and members of the PSA Labour Movements Group for their comments on earlier drafts of chapter 1. Lawrence Black wishes to thank John Callaghan, James Thompson, Nick Tiratsoo and Leo Zeilig, and the audience at a seminar held at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, for their comments and advice about sources. Michael Newman is grateful to Tony Benn for permission to quote from the unpublished version of his diary. Steven Fielding and Declan McHugh wish to thank Peter Clarke, Kevin Hickson, Steve Ludlam, John McHugh and David Marquand for their insights. Steve Ludlam thanks his co-editors for their comments on chapter 10. Colin Hay expresses his thanks to Steven Fielding, Dave Marsh and Dan Wincott for helpful comments on an earlier version of chapter 12 and acknowledges the support of the ESRC ‘One Europe or Several?’ programme for research on ‘Globalisation, European Integration and the European Social Model’ (L213252043). The editors express their appreciation to all those who, as either paper-givers or audience, participated in the Labour Movement Studies’ conference ‘Understanding the Labour Party’ which was held in Manchester in July 2001 and on which this collection is based; in addition, they thank the UK Political Studies Association for financial support and Starbucks for the hosting of their numerous editorial conferences. ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page viii ITLP_A01.QXD 18/8/03 9:52 am Page ix 2 Contributors John Callaghan, Steven Fielding and Steve Ludlam Lawrence Black is Fulbright-Robertson Visiting Professor of British History at Westminster College, Missouri, USA during 2002–3. He is the author of The Political Culture of the Left in Affluent Britain, 1951-64: Old Labour, New Britain? (2003). A volume co-edited with Hugh Pemberton, An Affluent Society? Britain’s Post-War ‘Golden Age’ Revisited is forthcoming. He is currently researching British political culture and post-war affluence. John Callaghan is Professor of Politics at the University of Wolverhampton and the author of Socialism in Britain (1990), The Retreat of Social Democracy (2000) and Crisis, Cold War and Conflict: the Communist Party 1951–68 (2003). David Coates is the Worrell Professor of Anglo-American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, USA. He has recently edited (with Peter Lawler) New Labour into Power (2000), and Paving the Way: The Critique of ‘Parliamentary Socialism’ (2003), the latter being a collection of essays on the Labour Party drawn largely from The Socialist Register and written by scholars sympathetic to the perspective discussed in his chapter.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Developmentalism, Modernity, and Dependency Theory in Latin America
    Developmentalism, Modernity, and Dependency Theory in Latin America Ramón Grosfoguel The Latin American dependentistas produced a knowledge that criticized the Eurocentric assumptions of the cepalistas,includingtheorthodoxMarxistandtheNorthAmericanmodern- ization theories. The dependentista school critique of stagism and develop- mentalism was an important intervention that transformed the imaginary of intellectual debates in many parts of the world. However, I will argue that many dependentistas were still caught in the developmentalism, and in some cases even the stagism, that they were trying to overcome. Moreover, although the dependentistas’ critique of stagism was important in denying the “denial of coevalness” that Johannes Fabian (1983) describes as central to Eurocentric constructions of “otherness,” some dependentistas replaced it with new forms of denial of coevalness. The first part of this article dis- cusses developmentalist ideology and what I call “feudalmania” as part of the longue durée of modernity in Latin America. The second part discusses the dependentistas’ developmentalism. The third part is a critical discussion of Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s version of dependency theory. Finally, the fourth part discusses the dependentistas’ concept of culture. Developmentalist Ideology and Feudalmania as Part of the Ideology of Modernity in Latin America There is a tendency to present the post-1945 development debates in Latin America as unprecedented. In order to distinguish continuity from dis- continuity, we must place the 1945–90 development debates in the context of the longue durée of Latin American history. The 1945–90 development Nepantla: Views from South 1:2 Copyright 2000 by Duke University Press 347 348 Nepantla debates in Latin America, although seemingly radical, in fact form part of the longue durée of the geoculture of modernity that has dominated the modern world-system since the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Discussing What Prime Ministers Are For
    Discussing what Prime Ministers are for PETER HENNESSY New Labour has a lot to answer for on this front. They On 13 October 2014, Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield FBA, had seen what the press was doing to John Major from Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Black Wednesday onwards – relentless attacks on him, Mary, University of London, delivered the first British which bothered him deeply.1 And they were determined Academy Lecture in Politics and Government, on ‘What that this wouldn’t happen to them. So they went into are Prime Ministers for?’ A video recording of the lecture the business of creating permanent rebuttal capabilities. and an article published in the Journal of the British Academy If somebody said something offensive about the can be found via www.britishacademy.ac.uk/events/2014/ Government on the Today programme, they would make every effort to put it right by the World at One. They went The following article contains edited extracts from the into this kind of mania of permanent rebuttal, which question and answer session that followed the lecture. means that you don’t have time to reflect before reacting to events. It’s arguable now that, if the Government doesn’t Do we expect Prime Ministers to do too much? react to events immediately, other people’s versions of breaking stories (circulating through social media etc.) I think it was 1977 when the Procedure Committee in will make the pace, and it won’t be able to get back on the House of Commons wanted the Prime Minister to be top of an issue.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Recent Writings on the History of Great Britain from 1832 to 1868
    Some Recent Writings on the History of Great Britain from 1832 to 1868 THE PURPOSE of this review article is to try to provide some guidance for New Zealand sixth-form teachers involved with the University Entrance topic on Great Britain, 1832-1868. The syllabus directs the teacher to cover the following problems: 'Industrialisation and urbanisation; economic growth and economic fluctuations; the situation established by the 1832 Reform Act; social and administrative reform from the 1830s to the 1860s; the rise, achievements and fall of Peel; the occasions, goals and results of agitation; the revival and results of political reform in the 1860s; party government and party organisation' (University Grants Committee Handbook, 1975, p. 158). This is certainly an ambitious programme but it is one which provides • an opportunity for the teacher and the students to familiarize themselves with the sorts of issues which are dominant in modern historical writing. It is, therefore, somewhat disappointing that the topic is one of the least popular, being heavily beaten in the popularity contest by those topics covering what was often the major element in Stage III university courses in the 1940s and 1950s: diplomacy and nationalism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This may not be the best way to preserve a diet of serious history against the intellectual porridge known as social studies. It also seems strange that more interest cannot be generated in the very society from which New Zealand's own governing traditions emerge. The present discussion of those traditions in their original, early Victorian British context is marked by a great, not to say, bewildering variety of interpretations as well as by a rather self-conscious concern with method.
    [Show full text]
  • The Attlee Governments
    Vic07 10/15/03 2:11 PM Page 159 Chapter 7 The Attlee governments The election of a majority Labour government in 1945 generated great excitement on the left. Hugh Dalton described how ‘That first sensa- tion, tingling and triumphant, was of a new society to be built. There was exhilaration among us, joy and hope, determination and confi- dence. We felt exalted, dedication, walking on air, walking with destiny.’1 Dalton followed this by aiding Herbert Morrison in an attempt to replace Attlee as leader of the PLP.2 This was foiled by the bulky protection of Bevin, outraged at their plotting and disloyalty. Bevin apparently hated Morrison, and thought of him as ‘a scheming little bastard’.3 Certainly he thought Morrison’s conduct in the past had been ‘devious and unreliable’.4 It was to be particularly irksome for Bevin that it was Morrison who eventually replaced him as Foreign Secretary in 1951. The Attlee government not only generated great excitement on the left at the time, but since has also attracted more attention from academics than any other period of Labour history. Foreign policy is a case in point. The foreign policy of the Attlee government is attractive to study because it spans so many politically and historically significant issues. To start with, this period was unique in that it was the first time that there was a majority Labour government in British political history, with a clear mandate and programme of reform. Whereas the two minority Labour governments of the inter-war period had had to rely on support from the Liberals to pass legislation, this time Labour had power as well as office.
    [Show full text]
  • Crossing the Floor Roy Douglas a Failure of Leadership Liberal Defections 1918–29 Senator Jerry Grafstein Winston Churchill As a Liberal J
    Journal of Issue 25 / Winter 1999–2000 / £5.00 Liberal DemocratHISTORY Crossing the Floor Roy Douglas A Failure of Leadership Liberal Defections 1918–29 Senator Jerry Grafstein Winston Churchill as a Liberal J. Graham Jones A Breach in the Family Megan and Gwilym Lloyd George Nick Cott The Case of the Liberal Nationals A re-evaluation Robert Maclennan MP Breaking the Mould? The SDP Liberal Democrat History Group Issue 25: Winter 1999–2000 Journal of Liberal Democrat History Political Defections Special issue: Political Defections The Journal of Liberal Democrat History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group 3 Crossing the floor ISSN 1463-6557 Graham Lippiatt Liberal Democrat History Group Editorial The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of 5 Out from under the umbrella historical topics, particularly those relating to the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Tony Little Party and the SDP. The Group organises The defection of the Liberal Unionists discussion meetings and publishes the Journal and other occasional publications. 15 Winston Churchill as a Liberal For more information, including details of publications, back issues of the Journal, tape Senator Jerry S. Grafstein records of meetings and archive and other Churchill’s career in the Liberal Party research sources, see our web site: www.dbrack.dircon.co.uk/ldhg. 18 A failure of leadership Hon President: Earl Russell. Chair: Graham Lippiatt. Roy Douglas Liberal defections 1918–29 Editorial/Correspondence Contributions to the Journal – letters, 24 Tory cuckoos in the Liberal nest? articles, and book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed publication; all articles Nick Cott submitted will be reviewed.
    [Show full text]
  • A Breach in the Family
    The Lloyd Georges J Graham Jones examines the defections, in the 1950s, of the children of David Lloyd George: Megan to Labour, and her brother Gwilym to the Conservatives. AA breachbreach inin thethe familyfamily G. thinks that Gwilym will go to the right and she became a cogent exponent of her father’s ‘LMegan to the left, eventually. He wants his dramatic ‘New Deal’ proposals to deal with unem- money spent on the left.’ Thus did Lloyd George’s ployment and related social problems. Although op- trusted principal private secretary A. J. Sylvester posed by a strong local Labour candidate in the per- write in his diary entry for April when dis- son of Holyhead County Councillor Henry Jones in cussing his employer’s heartfelt concern over the fu- the general election of , she secured the votes of ture of his infamous Fund. It was a highly prophetic large numbers of Labour sympathisers on the island. comment. The old man evidently knew his children. In , she urged Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to welcome the Jarrow marchers, and she battled he- Megan roically (although ultimately in vain) to gain Special Megan Lloyd George had first entered Parliament at Assisted Area Status for Anglesey. Megan’s innate only twenty-seven years of age as the Liberal MP for radicalism and natural independence of outlook Anglesey in the We Can Conquer Unemployment gen- grew during the years of the Second World War, eral election of May , the first women mem- which she saw as a vehicle of social change, espe- ber ever to be elected in Wales.
    [Show full text]
  • Children, Education, and the British Empire, 1899-1950
    Savages or Citizens? Children, Education, and the British Empire, 1899-1950 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Rachel Ann Neiwert IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Anna Clark August 2009 © Rachel Ann Neiwert, August 2009 i Acknowledgments I first encountered Charlotte Mason when I was teaching at Intown Community School in Atlanta, Georgia. I am thankful that Intown was a school that valued books and learning and demonstrated those values by giving each teacher a complete set of Charlotte Mason’s books on education. I had no idea that those garishly pink books that sat on my bookshelf would turn out to be the genesis of this dissertation. Special thanks go to Lisa Cadora who nurtured my interest in Mason during my years of teaching there. I have been incredibly fortunate to have wonderful teachers, who encouraged me along the way, including Caitlin Corning and Kerry Irish at George Fox University and Denise Davidson and Ian Christopher Fletcher at Georgia State University. For pointing me in the direction of the University of Minnesota and Anna Clark, Ian Fletcher deserves particular thanks. When he told me he thought I would get along well with Anna, he was certainly right! I have not lacked for wonderful teachers here at the University of Minnesota. Seminars with Andy Elfenbein, Patricia Lorcin, MJ Maynes, and Gloria Raheja gave me space to try out ideas that became the chapters in this dissertation. Hopefully the work here is better for their interest and comments.
    [Show full text]
  • Monthly Review Press Catalog, 2011
    PAID PAID Social Structure RIPON, WI and Forms of NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE U.S. POSTAGE Consciousness ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION PERMIT NO. 100 volume ii The Dialectic of Structure and History István Mészáros Class Dismissed WHY WE CANNOT TEACH OR LEARN OUR WAY OUT OF INEQUALITY John Marsh JOSÉ CARLOS MARIÁTEGUI an anthology MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker editors and translators the story of the center for constitutional rights How Venezuela and Cuba are Changing the World’s Conception of Health Care the people’s RevolutionaRy lawyer DOCTORS 2011 Albert Ruben Steve Brouwer WHAT EVERY ENVIRONMENTALIST NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT CAPITALISM JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER FRED MAGDOFF monthly review press review monthly #6W 29th Street, 146 West NY 10001 New York, www.monthlyreview.org 2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 1/4/2011 3:49 PM Page 1 THE DEVIL’S MILK A Social History of Rubber JOHN TULLY From the early stages of primitivehistory accu- mulation“ to the heights of the industrial revolution and beyond, rubber is one of a handful of commodities that has played a crucial role in shaping the modern world, and yet, as John Tully shows in this remarkable book, laboring people around the globe have every reason to THE DEVIL’S MILK regard it as “the devil’s milk.” All the A S O C I A L H I S T O R Y O F R U B B E R advancements made possible by rubber have occurred against a backdrop of seemingly endless exploitation, con- quest, slavery, and war.
    [Show full text]
  • The Labour Party and the Idea of Citizenship, C. 193 1-1951
    The Labour Party and the Idea of Citizenship, c. 193 1-1951 ABIGAIL LOUISA BEACH University College London Thesis presented for the degree of PhD University of London June 1996 I. ABSTRACT This thesis examines the development and articulation of ideas of citizenship by the Labour Party and its sympathizers in academia and the professions. Setting this analysis within the context of key policy debates the study explores how ideas of citizenship shaped critiques of the relationships between central government and local government, voluntary groups and the individual. Present historiographical orthodoxy has skewed our understanding of Labour's attitude to society and the state, overemphasising the collectivist nature and centralising intentions of the Labour party, while underplaying other important ideological trends within the party. In particular, historical analyses which stress the party's commitment from the 1930s to achieving the transition to socialism through a strategy of planning, (of industrial development, production, investment, and so on), have generally concluded that the party based its programme on a centralised, expert-driven state, with control removed from the grasp of the ordinary people. The re-evaluation developed here questions this analysis and, fundamentally, seeks to loosen the almost overwhelming concentration on the mechanisms chosen by the Labour for the implementation of policy. It focuses instead on the discussion of ideas that lay behind these policies and points to the variety of opinions on the meaning and implications of social and economic planning that surfaced in the mid-twentieth century Labour party. In particular, it reveals considerable interest in the development of an active and participatory citizenship among socialist thinkers and politicians, themes which have hitherto largely been seen as missing elements in the ideas of the interwar and immediate postwar Labour party.
    [Show full text]
  • Rowland Kenney and British Propaganda in Norway: 1916-1942
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by St Andrews Research Repository ROWLAND KENNEY AND BRITISH PROPAGANDA IN NORWAY: 1916-1942 Paul Magnus Hjertvik Buvarp A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2016 Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8647 This item is protected by original copyright Rowland Kenney and British Propaganda in Norway: 1916-1942 Paul Magnus Hjertvik Buvarp This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 18 September 2015 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, ……, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately ….. words in length, has been written by me, and that it is the record of work carried out by me, or principally by myself in collaboration with others as acknowledged, and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in [month, year] and as a candidate for the degree of …..…. in [month, year]; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between [year] and [year]. (If you received assistance in writing from anyone other than your supervisor/s): I, …..., received assistance in the writing of this thesis in respect of [language, grammar, spelling or syntax], which was provided by …… Date …… signature of candidate ……… 2.
    [Show full text]
  • British Socialism and American Romanticism
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Previously Published Works Title British Socialism and American Romanticism Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9kq451tc Journal English Historical Review, 110 Author Bevir, Mark Publication Date 1995 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California BRITISH SOCIALISM AND AMERICAN ROMANTICISM By MARK BEVIR Department of Politics Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU ABSTRACT Although much has been said about the influence of Carlyle and Ruskin on British socialists, the influence of Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman has been neglected. American romanticism influenced British socialism through three direct channels: first, the wandering scholar Thomas Davidson who inspired the Fellowship of the New Life; second, the poet Edward Carpenter who dominated the Sheffield Socialist Society and influenced other local groups; and, third, the unitarian minister John Trevor who founded the Labour Church movement. Through these channels, American romanticism acted as an important source of the ethical socialism of the Independent Labour Party. 1 BRITISH SOCIALISM AND AMERICAN ROMANTICISM In 1906 William Stead sent a questionnaire to prominent members of the Labour Party asking what books had influenced them.1 The most frequently cited authors were Carlyle and Ruskin but Emerson and Thoreau were not far behind. Much has been written about the influence of British romanticism on the British socialist movement, and perhaps the obvious impact of Carlyle and Ruskin has obscured that of Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. 2 It can seem difficult to assess the influence of the American romantics precisely because their views so closely resemble those of their British counterparts.
    [Show full text]
  • BBS 101 2006 July
    ISSN 0960-7870 BRITISH BRICK SOCIETY INFORMATION 101 JULY 2006 OFFICERS OF THE BRITISH BRICK SOCIETY Chairman Dr James W.P. Campbell Queens' College E-mail: [email protected] CAMBRIDGE CB3 9ET Honorary Secretary Michael S Oliver 19 Woodcroft Avenue E-mail: [email protected] STANMORE Middlesex HA7 3PT Enquiries Secretary Michael Hammett ARIBA 9 Bailey Close Tel: 01494-520299 HIGH WYCOMBE E-mail [email protected] Buckinghamshire HP13 6QA Membership Secretary Anthony A. Preston 11 Harcourt Way (Receives all direct subscriptions, £10-00 per annum*) SELSEY West Sussex P020 OPF Editor of BBS Information David H. Kennett BA, MSc 7 Watery Lane (Receives all articles and items for BBS Information) SHIPSTON-ON-STOUR Tel: 01608-664039 Warwickshire CV36 4BE E-mail: [email protected] (term-time only) Honorary Treasurer Mrs W. Ann Los "Peran" (For matters concerning annual accounts, expenses) 30 Plaxton Bridge and Bibliographer Woodmansey BEVERLEY East Yorkshire HU17 ORT Publications Officer Mr John Tibbles Barff House 5 Ash Grove Sigglesthome HULL East Yorkshire HU 11 5QE The annual subscription to the British Brick Society is £10-00 per annum. Telephone numbers of members would be helpful for contact purposes, but will not be included in the Membership List. OFFICERS OF THE BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION : BRICK SECTION* Liaison Officer Michael Hammett Address as above Members of the BAA may join its brick section and, as such, will be eligible for affiliation to the British Brick Society at a reduced annual subscription of £7-00 per annum; BAA Life Members have a waiver of the subscription but they should inform the BAA: BS secretary of their interest so that they can be included in the Membership List.
    [Show full text]