An Edwardian Mixed Doubles: The Bosanquets versus the Webbs: A Study in British Social Policy 1890-1929

by A. M. McBriar

Overview

This book examines social policy on poverty and unemployment in Edwardian England as exemplified in the conflict of ideas between two husband-and-wife teams of social theorists: the Fabian socialists, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, and the spokespersons of the Charity Organisation Society, the philosopher Bernard Bosanquet and his wife, Helen. Based on official sources, personal papers, and primary published material, Professor McBriar gives full account of a rousing Edwardian tournament that culminated in the lengthy inquiries of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws of 1905-1909.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198201113
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/17/1987
Pages:	420
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Monash University, Australia

Editorial Reviews

"McBriar has successfully elaborated and clarified the positions of the Fabian socialists and the COS on poor relief and unemployment. The book makes a major contribution to the existing literature on British social policy as well as on the more specific issues of Fabian socialism and the Keynesian critique of laissez-faire industrialization."—Journal of Economic History

"McBriar's analysis of the Poor Law Commission's gestation, operation and outcome has been long awaited by historians...Scholarly, elegantly arranged and informed by a quiet, rather dry humour, his new book at last puts into context a Royal Commission which conducted a classic debate on the causes and cure of poverty between 1905 and 1909."—London Review of Books

With wit, humor, and a compassionate understanding of the human condition, McBriar has brightly illuminated an important segment of late Victorian-Edwardian English society and the dialectics of British social policies."—Social Science Quarterly

"His analysis of the events of the commission and of the campaigns to publicize the two reports is probably better than anything that has hitherto appeared."—Journal of Modern History

"Lucid, perceptive, and remarkably evenhanded."—CHOICE

From the Publisher