Imperialism and Social Reform

This text deals with the attempts in the critical years between 1895 and 1914 to make the English working-class aware of the benefits of Empire. Two rival imperialist programmes contended for support: that of the Liberal-Imperialists; and that of Joseph Chamberlain and the Tariff Reform League.

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This text is concerned with the attempts in the critical years between 1895 and 1914 to make the English working-class aware of the benefits of Empire. Two rival imperialist programmes contended for support: that of the Liberal-Imperialists-Rosebery, Asqueth and Haldane; and that of Joseph Chamberlain and the Tariff Reform League. The author discusses the development of these programmes, as well as individual formulations of social-imperial concepts by, most surprisingly, the Fabian Socialists, Sidney Webb and Bernard Shaw; the Social-Darwinists, Karl Pearson and Benjamin Kidd; the economic historians, W J Ashley and William Cunningham; and by the later developments of these concepts in Britain after World War I.