Synopses & Reviews
This is the second book in Kevin Morgans series Bolshevism and the British Left. It explores how the veteran Fabian socialists Beatrice and Sidney Webb came to regard Stalins Russia as a new civilisation and the hope of the world. Through a meticulous reconstruction of the Webbs thinking, Morgan offers a challenging reassessment of accepted stereotypes. Drawing on their diaries, papers and published writings, he assesses the couples complex political evolution over some four decades, and shows how much more significant were their individual responses than the cliché of two typewriters beating as one would suggest. While Sidney upheld the statist and technocratic perspectives synonymous with Webbism, Beatrice also contributed concerns with associationism and the search for a higher social morality. Their love affair with Soviet communism, which seemed to represent both synthesis and transcendence of these different strands of their thought, was far less idiosyncratic than is sometimes thought. Here it is discussed in a broader context, and the paradox that emerges is that across the European left it was often precisely those who had previously been most suspicious of state socialism who subsequently proved most susceptible to its Soviet apotheosis.
Synopsis
Through a meticulous reconstruction of the British socialists, economists, and reformers Sidney and Beatrice Webb’s way of thinking, this study offers a challenging reassessment of accepted stereotypes, revealing theirs to be a mindset that was far less idiosyncratic than is commonly claimed. Drawing on their diaries, papers, and published writings, this expertly researched critical analysis assesses the couple’s complex political evolution over some four decades, artfully illustrating their love affair with Soviet communism.
About the Author
Kevin Morgan is a professor of politics and contemporary history at the University of Manchester. He is the author of Harry Pollitt and co-author of Communists in British Society 1920-1991.