William Rathbone Greg, Scientific Liberalism, and the Second Empire
William Rathbone Greg's name is well known to historians of nineteenth-century Britain, but the content of his political thought is not. This article, based on a comprehensive reading of Greg's prolific published output, has two aims. The first is to pin down his politics. The article posi...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2021
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| _version_ | 1797109168871571456 |
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| author | Middleton, A |
| author_facet | Middleton, A |
| author_sort | Middleton, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | William Rathbone Greg's name is well known to historians of nineteenth-century Britain, but the content of his political thought is not. This article, based on a comprehensive reading of Greg's prolific published output, has two aims. The first is to pin down his politics. The article positions Greg as a leading spokesman for the rationalistic, antidemocratic strand of mid-Victorian Liberalism. It argues that his thought centered on the idea that politics was a science, and that scientific statesmanship might solve many of the problems of the age. The article's second aim is to show that Greg was a sophisticated thinker on politics overseas. He developed distinctive arguments about the structures of European politics, and especially about France under the Second Empire (1852-70). Greg's writings cast important light on the connections between abstract, domestic, and European issues in less familiar reaches of Liberal thought, and on how Victorian political science grappled with Continental despotism. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:38:07Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:8243a3a5-45de-4bbb-b867-56da7021cc91 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:38:07Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:8243a3a5-45de-4bbb-b867-56da7021cc912023-03-28T07:35:53ZWilliam Rathbone Greg, Scientific Liberalism, and the Second EmpireJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8243a3a5-45de-4bbb-b867-56da7021cc91EnglishSymplectic ElementsCambridge University Press2021Middleton, AWilliam Rathbone Greg's name is well known to historians of nineteenth-century Britain, but the content of his political thought is not. This article, based on a comprehensive reading of Greg's prolific published output, has two aims. The first is to pin down his politics. The article positions Greg as a leading spokesman for the rationalistic, antidemocratic strand of mid-Victorian Liberalism. It argues that his thought centered on the idea that politics was a science, and that scientific statesmanship might solve many of the problems of the age. The article's second aim is to show that Greg was a sophisticated thinker on politics overseas. He developed distinctive arguments about the structures of European politics, and especially about France under the Second Empire (1852-70). Greg's writings cast important light on the connections between abstract, domestic, and European issues in less familiar reaches of Liberal thought, and on how Victorian political science grappled with Continental despotism. |
| spellingShingle | Middleton, A William Rathbone Greg, Scientific Liberalism, and the Second Empire |
| title | William Rathbone Greg, Scientific Liberalism, and the Second Empire |
| title_full | William Rathbone Greg, Scientific Liberalism, and the Second Empire |
| title_fullStr | William Rathbone Greg, Scientific Liberalism, and the Second Empire |
| title_full_unstemmed | William Rathbone Greg, Scientific Liberalism, and the Second Empire |
| title_short | William Rathbone Greg, Scientific Liberalism, and the Second Empire |
| title_sort | william rathbone greg scientific liberalism and the second empire |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT middletona williamrathbonegregscientificliberalismandthesecondempire |