In 1895, Webb helped to found the London School of Economics with a bequest left to the Fabian Society. He was appointed its Professor of Public Administration in 1912 and held the post for 15 years. In 1892, he married Beatrice Potter, who shared his interests and beliefs.[1] The money she contributed to the marriage enabled him to give up his clerical job and concentrate on his other activities. Sidney and Beatrice Webb founded the New Statesman magazine in 1913.[2]
As Colonial Secretary he issued the Passfield White Paper that revised the government policy on Palestine, previously set by the Churchill White Paper of 1922. In 1930, failing health caused him to step down as Dominions Secretary, but he stayed on as Colonial Secretary until the fall of the Labour government in August 1931.[citation needed]
The Webbs ignored mounting evidence of atrocities being committed by Joseph Stalin and remained supporters of the Soviet Union until their deaths. Having reached their seventies and early eighties, their books, Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? (1935) and The Truth About Soviet Russia (1942), still gave a positive assessment of Stalin's regime. The Trotskyist historian Al Richardson later dubbed Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? "pure Soviet propaganda at its most mendacious".[5]
In H. G. Wells' The New Machiavelli (1911), the Webbs, as "the Baileys", are mercilessly lampooned as short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators. The Fabian Society, of which Wells was briefly a member (1903–1908), fares no better in his estimation.[citation needed]
Beatrice Webb in her diary records that they "read the caricatures of ourselves... with much interest and amusement. The portraits are very clever in a malicious way."[15][16] She reviews the book and Wells's character, summarising: "As an attempt at representing a political philosophy the book utterly fails..."[17]
Personal life
When his wife, Beatrice, died in 1943, the casket of her ashes was buried in the garden of their house in Passfield Corner, as were those of Lord Passfield in 1947.
In 2006, the London School of Economics, alongside the Housing Association, renamed its Great Dover Street student residence Sidney Webb House in his honour.
Archives
Sidney Webb's papers form part of the Passfield archive at the London School of Economics.[19] Posts about Sidney Webb regularly appear in the LSE Archives blog.[20]
Bibliography
Works by Sidney Webb
Facts for Socialists (1887)
Fabian Essays in Socialism – The Basis of Socialism – Historic (1889)
"Socialism in England". Publications of the American Economic Association. 4 (2). April 1889.
A plea for an eight hours bill (1890)
English progress towards social democracy (1890)
Practicable land nationalization (1890)
The workers' political programme (1890)
What the farm laborer wants (1890)
A Labour policy for public authorities (1891)
London's neglected heritage (1891)
London's water tribute (1891)
Municipal tramways (1891)
The municipalisation of the gas supply (1891)
The reform of the poor law (1891)
The scandal of London's markets (1891)
The "unearned increment" (1891)
Socialism : true and false (1894)
The London vestries: what they are and what they do: with map, table of vestries, etc. (1894)
The difficulties of individualism (1896)
Labor in the longest reign (1837-1897) (1897)
The economics of direct employment (1898)
Five years' fruits of the Parish Councils Act (1901)
The education muddle and the way out (1901)
Twentieth century politics : a policy of national efficiency (1901)
The Education Act, 1902 : how to make the best of it (1903)
London Education (1904)
The London Education Act, 1903 : how to make the best of it (1904)
Paupers and old age pensions (1907)
The decline in the birth-rate (1907)
Grants in Aid: A Criticism and a Proposal (1911)
The necessary basis of society (1911)
The Economic Theory of a Legal Minimum Wage (1912)
Seasonal Trades, with A. Freeman (1912)
What about the rates? : or, Municipal finance and municipal autonomy (1913)
The War and the workers : handbook of some immediate measures to prevent unemployment and relieve distress (1914)
The Restoration of Trade Union Conditions (1916)
When peace comes : the way of industrial reconstruction (1916)
The reform of the House of Lords (1917)
The teacher in politics (1918)
National finance and a levy on capital (1919)
The root of labour unrest (1920)
The constitutional problems of a co-operative society (1923)
The Labour Party on the threshold (1923)
The need for federal reorganisation in the co-operative movement (1923)
The Local Government Act, 1929 - how to make the best of it (1929)
Soviet Communism: A new civilisation? (1935, Vol I Vol II) (the 2nd and 3rd editions of 1941 and 1944 did not have "?" in the title)
The Truth About Soviet Russia (1942)
Notes
^"Sidney and Beatrice Webb | British economists". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
^The world movement towards collectivism, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, New Statesman, 12 April 1913; Bending the arc of history towards justice and freedom, New Statesman, 12 April 2013, retrieved 13 May 2014.
^The History of the Fabian Society, Edward R. Pease, Frank Cass and Co. LTD, 1963
^Al Richardson, "Introduction" to C. L. R. James, World Revolution 1917–1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International. Humanities Press (reprint), 1994; ISBN0-391-03790-0
^Webb, Sidney (1889), "Facts for Londoners: An exhaustive collection of statistical and other facts relating to the metropolis: with suggestions for reform on socialist principles", Fabian Tract, 8
^Webb, Sidney (May 1890), "An Eight Hours Bill in the form of an amendment of the Factory Acts, with further provisions for the improvement of the conditions of labour", Fabian Tract, 9
^Webb, Sidney (1891), "The case for an Eight Hours Bill", Fabian Tract, 23
^Webb, Sidney (1890), "Practicable land nationalization", Fabian Tract, 12
^Webb, Sidney (21 January 1894), "Socialism: true and false. A lecture delivered to the Fabian Society", Fabian Tract, 51
^Webb, Sidney (1901), "The education muddle and the way out: a constructive criticism of English educational machinery", Fabian Tract, 106
^Webb, Sidney (1907), "The decline in the birth-rate", Fabian Tract, 131
^"Eugenics: the skeleton that rattles loudest in the left's closet | Jonathan Freedland". The Guardian. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
^Webb, Sidney (1917), "The reform of the House of Lords", Fabian Tract, 183
^"Full text of "Bibliography of road making and maintenance in Great Britain"". Internet Archive. Retrieved 21 March 2022. A sixpenny pamphlet for the Roads Improvement Association.
Further reading
Bevir, Mark. "Sidney Webb: Utilitarianism, positivism, and social democracy." Journal of Modern History 74.2 (2002): 217–252 online
Cole, Margaret, et al. The Webbs and their work (1949)
Davanzati, Guglielmo Forges, and Andrea Pacella. "Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Towards an Ethical Foundation of the Operation of the Labour Market." History of Economic Ideas (2004): 25–49
Farnham, David. “Beatrice and Sidney Webb and the Intellectual Origins of British Industrial Relations.” Employee Relations (2008). 30: 534–552
Harrison, Royden. The Life and Times of Sydney and Beatrice Webb, 1858-1905 (2001)
Kaufman, Bruce E. "Sidney and Beatrice Webb's Institutional Theory of Labor Markets and Wage Determination." Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society 52.3 (2013): 765–791. online
MacKenzie, Norman Ian, and Jeanne MacKenzie. The First Fabians (Quartet Books, 1979)
Radice, Lisanne. Beatrice and Sidney Webb: Fabian Socialists (Springer, 1984)
Stigler, George. “Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb, and the Theory of Fabian Socialism,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1959) 103#3: 469–475
Primary sources
Mackenzie, Norman, ed. The Letters of Sidney and Beatrice Webb (3 volumes. Cambridge University Press, 1978, pp. xvii, 453; xi, 405; ix, 482)
Volume 1. Apprenticeships 1873–1892 (1978)
Volume 2. Partnership 1892–1912 (1978)
Volume 3. Pilgrimage, 1912–1947 (1978)
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield.
sidney, webb, baron, passfield, sidney, webb, redirects, here, english, cricketer, sidney, webb, cricketer, english, footballer, webb, sidney, james, webb, baron, passfield, july, 1859, october, 1947, british, socialist, economist, reformer, founded, london, s. Sidney Webb redirects here For the English cricketer see Sidney Webb cricketer For the English footballer see Sid Webb Sidney James Webb 1st Baron Passfield OM PC 13 July 1859 13 October 1947 was a British socialist economist and reformer who co founded the London School of Economics He was an early member of the Fabian Society in 1884 joining like George Bernard Shaw three months after its inception Along with his wife Beatrice Webb and with Annie Besant Graham Wallas Edward R Pease Hubert Bland and Sydney Olivier Shaw and Webb turned the Fabian Society into the pre eminent politico intellectual society in Edwardian England He wrote the original pro nationalisation Clause IV for the British Labour Party The Right HonourableThe Lord PassfieldOM PCWebb in 1893President of the Board of TradeIn office 22 January 1924 3 November 1924MonarchGeorge VPrime MinisterRamsay MacDonaldPreceded bySir Philip Lloyd GraemeSucceeded bySir Philip Lloyd GraemeSecretary of State for Dominion AffairsIn office 7 June 1929 5 June 1930MonarchGeorge VPrime MinisterRamsay MacDonaldPreceded byLeo AmerySucceeded byJames Henry ThomasSecretary of State for the ColoniesIn office 7 June 1929 24 August 1931MonarchGeorge VPrime MinisterRamsay MacDonaldPreceded byLeo AmerySucceeded byJames Henry ThomasPersonal detailsBornSidney James Webb 1859 07 13 13 July 1859LondonDied13 October 1947 1947 10 13 aged 88 Liphook HampshirePolitical partyLabourSpouseBeatrice Potter m 1892 died 1943 wbr Alma materBirkbeck University of London King s College London Contents 1 Background and education 2 Professional life 3 Political career 4 Writings 5 References in literature 6 Personal life 7 Archives 8 Bibliography 9 Notes 10 Further reading 10 1 Primary sources 11 External linksBackground and education EditWebb was born in London to a professional family He studied law at the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution for a degree of the University of London in his spare time while holding an office job He also studied at King s College London before being called to the Bar in 1885 Professional life EditIn 1895 Webb helped to found the London School of Economics with a bequest left to the Fabian Society He was appointed its Professor of Public Administration in 1912 and held the post for 15 years In 1892 he married Beatrice Potter who shared his interests and beliefs 1 The money she contributed to the marriage enabled him to give up his clerical job and concentrate on his other activities Sidney and Beatrice Webb founded the New Statesman magazine in 1913 2 Political career Edit Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb Webb and Potter were members of the Labour Party and took an active role in politics Sidney became Member of Parliament for Seaham at the 1922 general election 3 The couple s influence can be seen in their hosting of the Coefficients a dining club that drew in some leading statesmen and thinkers of the day In 1929 he was created Baron Passfield of Passfield Corner in the County of Southampton 4 He served as Secretary of State for the Colonies and as Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs in Ramsay MacDonald s second Labour Government in 1929 As Colonial Secretary he issued the Passfield White Paper that revised the government policy on Palestine previously set by the Churchill White Paper of 1922 In 1930 failing health caused him to step down as Dominions Secretary but he stayed on as Colonial Secretary until the fall of the Labour government in August 1931 citation needed The Webbs ignored mounting evidence of atrocities being committed by Joseph Stalin and remained supporters of the Soviet Union until their deaths Having reached their seventies and early eighties their books Soviet Communism A New Civilisation 1935 and The Truth About Soviet Russia 1942 still gave a positive assessment of Stalin s regime The Trotskyist historian Al Richardson later dubbed Soviet Communism A New Civilization pure Soviet propaganda at its most mendacious 5 Writings EditWebb co authored with his wife The History of Trade Unionism 1894 For the Fabian Society he wrote on poverty in London 6 the eight hour day 7 8 land nationalisation 9 the nature of socialism 10 education 11 eugenics 12 13 and reform of the House of Lords 14 He also drafted Clause IV which committed the Labour Party to public ownership of industry citation needed References in literature Edit Beatrice and Sidney Webb working together in 1895 In H G Wells The New Machiavelli 1911 the Webbs as the Baileys are mercilessly lampooned as short sighted bourgeois manipulators The Fabian Society of which Wells was briefly a member 1903 1908 fares no better in his estimation citation needed Beatrice Webb in her diary records that they read the caricatures of ourselves with much interest and amusement The portraits are very clever in a malicious way 15 16 She reviews the book and Wells s character summarising As an attempt at representing a political philosophy the book utterly fails 17 Personal life EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Sidney Webb 1st Baron Passfield news newspapers books scholar JSTOR November 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message When his wife Beatrice died in 1943 the casket of her ashes was buried in the garden of their house in Passfield Corner as were those of Lord Passfield in 1947 Shortly afterwards George Bernard Shaw launched a petition to have both reburied in Westminster Abbey which was eventually granted the Webbs ashes are interred in the nave close to those of Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin The Passfields were also friends of philosopher Bertrand Russell 18 In 2006 the London School of Economics alongside the Housing Association renamed its Great Dover Street student residence Sidney Webb House in his honour Archives EditSidney Webb s papers form part of the Passfield archive at the London School of Economics 19 Posts about Sidney Webb regularly appear in the LSE Archives blog 20 Bibliography EditWorks by Sidney WebbFacts for Socialists 1887 Fabian Essays in Socialism The Basis of Socialism Historic 1889 Socialism in England Publications of the American Economic Association 4 2 April 1889 A plea for an eight hours bill 1890 English progress towards social democracy 1890 Practicable land nationalization 1890 The workers political programme 1890 What the farm laborer wants 1890 A Labour policy for public authorities 1891 London s neglected heritage 1891 London s water tribute 1891 Municipal tramways 1891 The municipalisation of the gas supply 1891 The reform of the poor law 1891 The scandal of London s markets 1891 The unearned increment 1891 Socialism true and false 1894 The London vestries what they are and what they do with map table of vestries etc 1894 The difficulties of individualism 1896 Labor in the longest reign 1837 1897 1897 The economics of direct employment 1898 Five years fruits of the Parish Councils Act 1901 The education muddle and the way out 1901 Twentieth century politics a policy of national efficiency 1901 The Education Act 1902 how to make the best of it 1903 London Education 1904 The London Education Act 1903 how to make the best of it 1904 Paupers and old age pensions 1907 The decline in the birth rate 1907 Grants in Aid A Criticism and a Proposal 1911 The necessary basis of society 1911 The Economic Theory of a Legal Minimum Wage 1912 Seasonal Trades with A Freeman 1912 What about the rates or Municipal finance and municipal autonomy 1913 The War and the workers handbook of some immediate measures to prevent unemployment and relieve distress 1914 The Restoration of Trade Union Conditions 1916 When peace comes the way of industrial reconstruction 1916 The reform of the House of Lords 1917 The teacher in politics 1918 National finance and a levy on capital 1919 The root of labour unrest 1920 The constitutional problems of a co operative society 1923 The Labour Party on the threshold 1923 The need for federal reorganisation in the co operative movement 1923 The Local Government Act 1929 how to make the best of it 1929 What happened in 1931 a record 1932 Works by Sidney and Beatrice WebbHistory of Trade Unionism 1894 Industrial Democracy 1897 translated into Russian by Lenin as The Theory and Practice of British Trade Unionism St Petersburg 1900 Problems of Modern Industry 1898 Bibliography of road making and maintenance in Great Britain 1906 21 English Local Government 1906 through 1929 Vol I X The Manor and the Borough 1908 The Break Up of the Poor Law 1909 English Poor Law Policy 1910 The Cooperative Movement 1914 Works Manager Today 1917 The Consumer s Cooperative Movement 1921 Decay of Capitalist Civilization 1923 Methods of Social Study 1932 Soviet Communism A new civilisation 1935 Vol I Vol II the 2nd and 3rd editions of 1941 and 1944 did not have in the title The Truth About Soviet Russia 1942 Notes Edit Sidney and Beatrice Webb British economists Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved 25 August 2017 The world movement towards collectivism Beatrice and Sidney Webb New Statesman 12 April 1913 Bending the arc of history towards justice and freedom New Statesman 12 April 2013 retrieved 13 May 2014 The History of the Fabian Society Edward R Pease Frank Cass and Co LTD 1963 No 33509 The London Gazette 25 June 1929 p 4189 Al Richardson Introduction to C L R James World Revolution 1917 1936 The Rise and Fall of the Communist International Humanities Press reprint 1994 ISBN 0 391 03790 0 Webb Sidney 1889 Facts for Londoners An exhaustive collection of statistical and other facts relating to the metropolis with suggestions for reform on socialist principles Fabian Tract 8 Webb Sidney May 1890 An Eight Hours Bill in the form of an amendment of the Factory Acts with further provisions for the improvement of the conditions of labour Fabian Tract 9 Webb Sidney 1891 The case for an Eight Hours Bill Fabian Tract 23 Webb Sidney 1890 Practicable land nationalization Fabian Tract 12 Webb Sidney 21 January 1894 Socialism true and false A lecture delivered to the Fabian Society Fabian Tract 51 Webb Sidney 1901 The education muddle and the way out a constructive criticism of English educational machinery Fabian Tract 106 Webb Sidney 1907 The decline in the birth rate Fabian Tract 131 Eugenics the skeleton that rattles loudest in the left s closet Jonathan Freedland The Guardian 17 February 2012 Retrieved 15 June 2020 Webb Sidney 1917 The reform of the House of Lords Fabian Tract 183 Webbs on the Web LSE Digital Library Beatrice Webb s typescript diary 2 January 1901 10 February 1911 LSE Digital Library http digital library lse ac uk objects lse won715bor read page 622 mode 2up Beatrice Webb s typescript diary 2 January 1901 10 February 1911 LSE Digital Library http digital library lse ac uk objects lse won715bor read page 622 mode 2up Autobiography of Bertrand Russell London Allen and Unwin 1969 Collection Browser Out of the box Full text of Bibliography of road making and maintenance in Great Britain Internet Archive Retrieved 21 March 2022 A sixpenny pamphlet for the Roads Improvement Association Further reading EditBevir Mark Sidney Webb Utilitarianism positivism and social democracy Journal of Modern History 74 2 2002 217 252 online Cole Margaret et al The Webbs and their work 1949 Davanzati Guglielmo Forges and Andrea Pacella Sidney and Beatrice Webb Towards an Ethical Foundation of the Operation of the Labour Market History of Economic Ideas 2004 25 49 Farnham David Beatrice and Sidney Webb and the Intellectual Origins of British Industrial Relations Employee Relations 2008 30 534 552 Harrison Royden The Life and Times of Sydney and Beatrice Webb 1858 1905 2001 Kaufman Bruce E Sidney and Beatrice Webb s Institutional Theory of Labor Markets and Wage Determination Industrial Relations A Journal of Economy and Society 52 3 2013 765 791 online MacKenzie Norman Ian and Jeanne MacKenzie The First Fabians Quartet Books 1979 Radice Lisanne Beatrice and Sidney Webb Fabian Socialists Springer 1984 Stigler George Bernard Shaw Sidney Webb and the Theory of Fabian Socialism Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 1959 103 3 469 475Primary sources Edit Mackenzie Norman ed The Letters of Sidney and Beatrice Webb 3 volumes Cambridge University Press 1978 pp xvii 453 xi 405 ix 482 Volume 1 Apprenticeships 1873 1892 1978 Volume 2 Partnership 1892 1912 1978 Volume 3 Pilgrimage 1912 1947 1978 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sidney James Webb 1st Baron Passfield Wikisource has the text of a 1905 New International Encyclopedia article about Sidney Webb Hansard 1803 2005 contributions in Parliament by Sidney Webb Critique of Webb by Leon Trotsky in The Revolution Betrayed The Webb Bibliography The Webb Diaries available in full from LSE Works by Sidney Webb at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Sidney Webb at Internet Archive Newspaper clippings about Sidney Webb 1st Baron Passfield in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBWParliament of the United KingdomPreceded byEvan Hayward Member of Parliament for Seaham1922 1929 Succeeded byRamsay MacDonaldParty political officesPreceded byFred Jowett Chair of the Labour Party1922 1923 Succeeded byRamsay MacDonaldPolitical officesPreceded bySir Philip Lloyd Greame President of the Board of Trade1924 Succeeded bySir Philip Lloyd GreamePreceded byLeo Amery Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs1929 1930 Succeeded byJames Henry ThomasSecretary of State for the Colonies1929 1931Peerage of the United KingdomNew creation Baron Passfield1929 1947 Extinct Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sidney Webb 1st Baron Passfield amp oldid 1117603095, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
