Fabians and 'Fabianism': a cultural history, 1884-1914
<p>This thesis is a cultural history of the early Fabian Society, focusing on the decades between 1884, the Society’s inaugural year, and 1914. The canonical view is that ‘Fabianism,’ which the <em>Oxford English Dictionary</em> defines as the ‘doctrine and principles of the Fabian...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2014
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| _version_ | 1826316463808446464 |
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| author | Downing, PC |
| author2 | McDonald, PD |
| author_facet | McDonald, PD Downing, PC |
| author_sort | Downing, PC |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis is a cultural history of the early Fabian Society, focusing on the decades between 1884, the Society’s inaugural year, and 1914. The canonical view is that ‘Fabianism,’ which the <em>Oxford English Dictionary</em> defines as the ‘doctrine and principles of the Fabian Society,’ is synonymous with State socialism and bureaucratic ‘efficiency.’ By bringing the methods of cultural history to bear on the Society’s founding members and decades, this thesis reveals that ‘Fabianism’ was in fact used as a dynamic metonymy, not a fixed doctrine, which signified a range of cultural, and even literary, meanings for British commentators in the 1890s and 1900s (Part 1). Further, by expanding the scope of traditional histories of the Fabian Society, which conventionally operate within political and economic sub-fields and focus on the Society’s ‘official’ literature, to include a close examination of the broader discursive context in which ‘Fabianism’ came into being, this thesis sets out to recover the symbolic aspects of the Fabians’ efforts to negotiate what ‘Fabianism’ meant to the English reading public. The Fabians’ conspicuous leadership in the modern education debates and the liberal fight for a ‘free stage,’ and their solidarity with the international political émigrés living in London at the turn of the twentieth century all contribute to this revised perspective on who the founding Fabians were, what they saw themselves as trying to achieve, and where the Fabian Society belonged—and was perceived to belong—in relation to British politics, culture, and society (Part 2). The original contribution of this thesis is the argument that the Fabians explicitly and implicitly evoked Matthew Arnold as a precursor in their efforts to articulate a kind of Fabian—latterly social-democratic—liberalism and a public vocation that balanced English liberties and the duty of the State to provide the ‘best’ for its citizens in education and in culture, as in politics.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T21:23:34Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:425127c1-94c1-4d20-ba58-fdd457c1f6b8 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-09T03:45:34Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:425127c1-94c1-4d20-ba58-fdd457c1f6b82024-12-07T17:23:41ZFabians and 'Fabianism': a cultural history, 1884-1914Thesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:425127c1-94c1-4d20-ba58-fdd457c1f6b8Political ideologiesEconomic and Social HistoryHistoryEnglish Language and LiteratureIntellectual HistorySociologyHistory of Britain and EuropeEducationEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2014Downing, PCMcDonald, PD<p>This thesis is a cultural history of the early Fabian Society, focusing on the decades between 1884, the Society’s inaugural year, and 1914. The canonical view is that ‘Fabianism,’ which the <em>Oxford English Dictionary</em> defines as the ‘doctrine and principles of the Fabian Society,’ is synonymous with State socialism and bureaucratic ‘efficiency.’ By bringing the methods of cultural history to bear on the Society’s founding members and decades, this thesis reveals that ‘Fabianism’ was in fact used as a dynamic metonymy, not a fixed doctrine, which signified a range of cultural, and even literary, meanings for British commentators in the 1890s and 1900s (Part 1). Further, by expanding the scope of traditional histories of the Fabian Society, which conventionally operate within political and economic sub-fields and focus on the Society’s ‘official’ literature, to include a close examination of the broader discursive context in which ‘Fabianism’ came into being, this thesis sets out to recover the symbolic aspects of the Fabians’ efforts to negotiate what ‘Fabianism’ meant to the English reading public. The Fabians’ conspicuous leadership in the modern education debates and the liberal fight for a ‘free stage,’ and their solidarity with the international political émigrés living in London at the turn of the twentieth century all contribute to this revised perspective on who the founding Fabians were, what they saw themselves as trying to achieve, and where the Fabian Society belonged—and was perceived to belong—in relation to British politics, culture, and society (Part 2). The original contribution of this thesis is the argument that the Fabians explicitly and implicitly evoked Matthew Arnold as a precursor in their efforts to articulate a kind of Fabian—latterly social-democratic—liberalism and a public vocation that balanced English liberties and the duty of the State to provide the ‘best’ for its citizens in education and in culture, as in politics.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Political ideologies Economic and Social History History English Language and Literature Intellectual History Sociology History of Britain and Europe Education Downing, PC Fabians and 'Fabianism': a cultural history, 1884-1914 |
| title | Fabians and 'Fabianism': a cultural history, 1884-1914 |
| title_full | Fabians and 'Fabianism': a cultural history, 1884-1914 |
| title_fullStr | Fabians and 'Fabianism': a cultural history, 1884-1914 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fabians and 'Fabianism': a cultural history, 1884-1914 |
| title_short | Fabians and 'Fabianism': a cultural history, 1884-1914 |
| title_sort | fabians and fabianism a cultural history 1884 1914 |
| topic | Political ideologies Economic and Social History History English Language and Literature Intellectual History Sociology History of Britain and Europe Education |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT downingpc fabiansandfabianismaculturalhistory18841914 |