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Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term ''
collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
''. She was among the founders of the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...
and played a crucial role in forming the
Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
.


Early life

Beatrice Potter was born in Standish House in the village of Standish, Gloucestershire, the last but one of the nine daughters of businessman Richard Potter and Laurencina Heyworth, a Liverpool merchant's daughter; Laurencina, was friends for a time with the prolific Victorian novelist, Margaret Oliphant during the 1840s. Both women were campaigned in Liverpool at the time (See Margaret Oliphant Autobiography Edited by Elizabeth Jay, page 25-26). Her paternal grandfather was
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
MP Richard Potter, co-founder of the ''
Little Circle The Little Circle was a Manchester-based group of Non-conformist Liberals, mostly members of the Portico Library, who held a common agenda with regards to political and social reform. The first group met from 1815 onwards to campaign for expande ...
'' which was key in creating the
Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament, Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major chan ...
. From an early age Webb was
self-taught Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individu ...
and cited as important influences the cooperative movement and the philosopher
Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest" ...
. After her mother's death in 1882 she acted as a hostess and companion for her father. In 1882, she began a relationship with twice-widowed Radical politician
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Cons ...
, by then a
Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...
minister in Gladstone's second government. He would not accept her need for independence as a woman and after four years of "storm and stress" their relationship failed.''Diaries of Beatrice Webb'' (2000), New Year's Day, 1901, p. 244. Marriage in 1892 to
Sidney Webb Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, (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 Geo ...
established a lifelong "partnership" of shared causes. At the beginning of 1901, Webb wrote that she and Sidney were "still on our honeymoon and every year makes our relationship more tender and complete." She and her husband were friends with the philosopher
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
.


"My Creed and My Craft"

Beatrice Webb left unfinished a planned autobiography, under the general title ''My Creed and My Craft''. At her death, aged 85, the only autobiographical work she had published was ''My Apprenticeship'' (1926). The posthumously issued ''Our Partnership'' (1948) covered the first two decades of her marriage to Sidney Webb between 1892 and 1911 and their collaboration on a variety of public issues. In the preface to the second work, its editors refer to Webb's
desire to describe truthfully her lifelong pursuit of a living philosophy, her changes of outlook and ideas, her growing distrust of benevolent philanthropy as a means of redeeming 'poor suffering humanity' and her leaving of the field of abstract economic theory for the then practically unexplored paths of scientific social research.
In 1926, when Webb had begun to prepare the second volume, ''Our Partnership'', only to be repeatedly distracted by other more pressing commitments, the book's editors report her finding it difficult to express "her philosophy of life, her belief in the scientific method, but its purpose guided always by religious emotion."


A pioneer in social research and policy-making

One of Beatrice's older sisters,
Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...
, became a well-known social worker. After Catherine married Leonard Courtney, Beatrice took over her work as a voluntary rent-collector in the
model dwellings Model dwellings companies (MDCs) were a group of private companies in Queen Victoria, Victorian United Kingdom, Britain that sought to improve the housing conditions of the working classes by building new homes for them, at the same time receiving ...
at
Katharine Buildings Katharine Buildings were model dwellings in Cartwright Street, Aldgate, London, the first project of the philanthropically-motivated East End Dwellings Company. The block was built during 1884, and opened in 1885 as model apartments for the work ...
,
Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...
, operated by the
East End Dwellings Company The East End Dwellings Company was a Victorian architecture, Victorian philanthropic model dwellings company, operating in the East End of London in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The company was founded in principle in 1882 by, among ...
. The young Beatrice also assisted her cousin by marriage Charles Booth in his pioneering survey of the Victorian slums of London, work which eventually became the massive 17-volume ''Life and Labour of the People of London'' (1902–1903). These experiences stimulated a critical attitude to current ideas of philanthropy. In 1890 Beatrice Potter was introduced to
Sidney Webb Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, (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 Geo ...
, whose help she sought with her research. They married in 1892, and until her death 51 years later shared political and professional activities. When her father died in January 1892, leaving Potter an endowment of £1,000 pounds a year, she had a private income for life with which to support herself and the research projects she pursued. The Webbs became active members of the
Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
. With the Fabians' support, Beatrice Webb co-authored books and pamphlets on socialism and the
co-operative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...
including ''The History of Trade Unionism'' (1894) and ''Industrial Democracy'' (1897). In 1895, the Fabians used part of an unexpected legacy of £10,000 from Henry Hutchinson, a solicitor from
Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
, to found the
London School of Economics and Political Science , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...
. After consulting Dr. Andrea Rabagliati for health problems, Webb became a vegetarian in 1902 and shortly thereafter began a vegetarian salon for socialists. By 1908, she was a vice-president of the National Food Reform Association. Webb was a
lacto-vegetarian A lacto-vegetarian (sometimes referred to as a lactarian; from the Latin root lact-, ''milk'') diet is a diet that abstains from the consumption of meat as well as eggs, while still consuming dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, ...
, she described herself as an "anti-flesh-fish-egg-alcohol-coffee-and-sugar eater".


Contributions to the theory of the co-operative movement

Beatrice Webb made a number of important contributions to the political and
economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
theory of the
co-operative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...
. In her 1891 book ''The Cooperative Movement in Great Britain'', based on her experiences in Lancashire, she distinguished between "co-operative federalism" and "co-operative individualism". She identified herself as a co-operative federalist, a school of thought which advocates
consumer co-operative A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a fo ...
societies. She argued that consumers' co-operatives should be set up as co-operative wholesale societies (by forming co-operatives in which all members are co-operatives, the best historical example being the English
Co-operative Wholesale Society A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. According to co-operative economi ...
) and that these federal co-operatives should then acquire farms or factories. Webb dismissed the idea of worker co-operatives where the people who did the work and benefited from it had some control over how it was organised, arguing that – at the time she was writing – such ventures had proved largely unsuccessful, at least in ushering in her form of socialism led by volunteer committees of people like herself. Examples of successful worker cooperatives did of course exist, then as now. In some professions they were the norm. However, Webb's final book, ''The Truth About Soviet Russia'' (1942), celebrated central planning. It was Webb who coined the term "
collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
".


1909 Minority report to Royal Commission

For four years Beatrice Webb was a member of the
Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09 Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...
. The
Conservative government Conservative or Tory government may refer to: Canada In Canadian politics, a Conservative government may refer to the following governments administered by the Conservative Party of Canada or one of its historical predecessors: * 1st Canadian Mi ...
of
A. J. Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the L ...
established the Commission, which issued its final report to the
Liberal government Liberal government may refer to: Australia In Australian politics, a Liberal government may refer to the following governments administered by the Liberal Party of Australia: * Menzies Government (1949–66), several Australian ministries under S ...
of
H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...
. Beatrice was the lead author of the dissenting
minority report Minority Report may refer to: * Minority report (Poor Law), published by the UK Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09 * "Minority Report", a 1949 science fiction short story by Theodore Sturgeon * "The Minority Report ...
. This sketched the outlines of a
Welfare State A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
which would
secure a national minimum of civilised life ... open to all alike, of both sexes and all classes, by which we meant sufficient nourishment and training when young, a living wage when able-bodied, treatment when sick, and modest but secure livelihood when disabled or aged.
William Beveridge William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal politician who was a progressive and social reformer who played a central role in designing the British welfare state. His 194 ...
, future author of the 1942
Beveridge Report The Beveridge Report, officially entitled ''Social Insurance and Allied Services'' ( Cmd. 6404), is a government report, published in November 1942, influential in the founding of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It was drafted by the Libe ...
that introduced the welfare state in the United Kingdom, worked as a researcher for the Webbs on the Minority Report. He was later appointed director (1919–1937) of the London School of Economics.


Rivalries on the Left, 1901–1922

The influence of the Webbs on the Fabian Society and its policies was attacked by H.G. Wells. For a time he joined the Society but was critical of its cautious approach: "They permeate English society with their reputed Socialism about as much as a mouse may be said to permeate a cat." For her part, Beatrice voiced disapproval of Wells' "sordid intrigue" with the daughter of a veteran Fabian Sydney Olivier. He responded by lampooning the couple in his 1911 novel '' The New Machiavelli'' as Altiora and Oscar Bailey, a pair of short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators. Other rivals from the
left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...
of the Fabian Society at that time were the
Guild Socialists Guild socialism is a political movement advocating workers' control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". It originated in the United Kingdom and was at its most influent ...
led by the historian and economist
G.D.H. Cole George Douglas Howard Cole (25 September 1889 – 14 January 1959) was an English political theorist, economist, and historian. As a believer in common ownership of the means of production, he theorised guild socialism (production organised ...
. Cole and his wife Margaret would later run the Fabian Research Bureau. In 1913, the Webbs and
Henry Devenish Harben Henry Devenish Harben (1874 – 18 May 1967) was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician who later joined the Labour Party. He was a notable supporter of women's suffrage. Early life He was the son of Henry Andrade Harben and the grand ...
, husband of suffragist and fellow Fabian,
Agnes Harben Agnes Helen Harben (née Bostock; 15 September 1879 – 29 October 1961) was a British Women's suffrage, suffragist leader who also supported the militant suffragette hunger strikers, and was a founder of the United Suffragists. Family and lif ...
, co-founded the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'', a political weekly edited by
Clifford Sharp Clifford Dyce Sharp (1883–1935) was a British journalist. He was the first editor of the ''New Statesman'' magazine from its foundation in 1913 until 1928; a left-wing magazine founded by Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other members of the social ...
with contributions from many philosophers, economists, and politicians of the day, including
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
and
John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
. The Webbs became members of the Labour Party in late 1914. At the end of World War I, Beatrice collaborated with her husband Sidney in his writings and policy statements such as ''Labour and the New Social Order'' (1918). She also campaigned for his successful election in 1922 to the parliamentary seat of coastal
Seaham Seaham is a seaside town in County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated south of Sunderland and east of Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as a result of investments in its harbour and c ...
, a mine-working community in
County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly About North East E ...
.


''Soviet Communism''

In 1928, the Webbs moved to
Liphook Liphook is a large village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 4.1 miles (6.6 km) west of Haslemere, bypassed by the A3 road, and lies on the Hampshire/West Sussex/Surrey borders. It is in the civil parish of Brams ...
in Hampshire, where they lived until their deaths in the 1940s. Soon Sidney was a minister in the new Labour government. Observing the wider world, Beatrice wrote of "Russian communism and Italian Fascism" as "two sides of the worship of force and the practice of cruel intolerance" and she was disturbed that "this spirit is creeping into the USA and even ... into Great Britain." The frustrations and disappointments of the next few years — the election of a narrow Labour majority of MPs in May 1929, the Great Depression which began later that year, the agreement of fellow Fabian
Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...
, after the October 1931 election, to form and head a National Government, thereby splitting the Labour Party – partly explain why Beatrice and Sidney began to look on the USSR and its leader Stalin with different eyes. In 1932, Webb was elected a
Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...
(FBA); she was the first woman elected to the fellowship. That year, Sidney and Beatrice, now in their 70s, spent two months from 21 May to late July in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. Their views about the Soviet economic experiment were published three years later in a massive volume, over 1,000 pages in length, entitled ''Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation?'' (1935). Most of the text was written by Sidney Webb and based on a copious study of publications and statistics provided by the Soviet embassy in London. In 1933 he made a further "fact-finding" trip to the USSR before publication, accompanied by their niece
Barbara Drake Barbara Drake (3 October 1876 – 19 July 1963) was a member of the Fabian Society and trade unionist. She was born in Knightsbridge, London, the daughter of Daniel Meinertzhagen, a banker, and his wife, Georgina ''née'' Potter, sister of Be ...
, a prominent trade unionist and member of the Fabian Society, and by John Cripps, the son of their nephew
Stafford Cripps Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. A wealthy lawyer by background, he first entered Parliament at a by-election in 1931, and was one of a handful of La ...
. Historians have criticised the Webbs for the naive supposition that the methods they had developed in analysing and formulating social policy in Britain could be applied to the Soviet Union. Their book promoted and encouraged an uncritical view of Stalin's conduct, during agrarian centralisation in the
first five-year plan The first five-year plan (russian: I пятилетний план, ) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economic goals, created by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, based on his policy of socialism in ...
(1928–1933), the creation of the
gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
system, and the extensive purges of the 1930s. Trotskyist historian Al Richardson later described their 1935 account of the USSR as "pure Soviet propaganda at its most mendacious". There also seemed to be a conscious element of deception. In the third edition of ''Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation'' (1941), for instance, the Webbs voiced the opinion that in 1937 "strenuous efforts had been made, both in the trade union organisation and in the Communist Party, to cut out the deadwood". This phrase was used to reassure a wider public about the grotesque accusations against former leading Bolsheviks. In her diaries Beatrice did not hide her disquiet, at the opening of the
Moscow Trials The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...
in the summer of 1936, and after the conviction of
Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
in March 1938. ''Soviet Communism: A New Civilization?'' — in later editions the question mark was dropped, as was any public doubt the Webbs might have about the nature of the USSR — has since been roundly condemned. In the preface to an anthology of
Left Book Club The Left Book Club was a publishing group that exerted a strong left-wing influence in Great Britain from 1936 to 1948. Pioneered by Victor Gollancz, it offered a monthly book choice, for sale to members only, as well as a newsletter that acqui ...
publications, for instance, British historian
A. J. P. Taylor Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was a British historian who specialised in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. Both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became well known to millions through his televis ...
is quoted as calling ''Soviet Communism: A New Civilization'' "the most preposterous book ever written about Russia". In the early 1930s
Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romfo ...
, one of Beatrice's own family by marriage, and himself the son of a Fabian, told her in no uncertain terms of his horrified disapproval of the Soviet system. She was among those listed in the German-compiled "Black Book".
Ivan Maisky Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky (also transliterated as "Maysky"; russian: Ива́н Миха́йлович Ма́йский) (19 January 1884 – 3 September 1975), a Soviet diplomat, historian and politician, served as the Soviet Union's ambassad ...
, the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's ambassador to the United Kingdom during much of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, was friendly with Webb. In a conversation with Webb on 10 October 1939, Maisky quoted her as stating "Churchill is not a true Englishman, you know. He has Negro blood. You can tell even from his appearance."


Extended family

In 1929 Webb's husband,
Sidney Webb Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, (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 Geo ...
, became Baron Passfield and a member of the House of Lords. Between 1929 and 1931 he served as
Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet government minister, minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various British Empire, colonial dependencies. Histor ...
and
Secretary of State for the Dominions The position of Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs was a British cabinet-level position created in 1925 responsible for British relations with the Dominions – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, and the Irish Free S ...
in Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government. Beatrice did not refer to herself as Lady Passfield or expect others to do so. Sidney and Beatrice Webb never had any children. In retirement, Beatrice would reflect on the success of their other progeny. For instance, in 1895 they had founded the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...
with
Graham Wallas Graham Wallas (31 May 1858 – 9 August 1932) was an English socialist, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader of the Fabian Society and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Biography Born in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, Walla ...
and George Bernard Shaw:
In old age it is one of the minor satisfactions of life to watch the success of your children, literal children or symbolic. The London School of Economics is undoubtedly our most famous one, but the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'' is also creditable—it is the most successful of the general weeklies, actually making a profit on its 25,000 readers, and has absorbed two of its rivals, ''The Nation'' and the ''Week-End Review''.
Meanwhile, the connections by marriage of their numerous nieces and nephews made Beatrice and Sidney part of the emerging new Labour establishment. Beatrice's nephew
Sir Stafford Cripps Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. A wealthy lawyer by background, he first entered Parliament at a by-election in 1931, and was one of a handful of La ...
, son of her sister Theresa, became a well-known Labour politician in the 1930s and 1940s. He served as British ambassador to Moscow during the Second World War and later as
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
under
Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...
. (His daughter Peggy went on to marry
Nana Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana ( ...
Joe Appiah, an African statesman and tribal
chieftain A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categori ...
who served as something of a
founding father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...
of the
Republic of Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
.) Margaret, yet another Potter sister, married the Liberal politician
Henry Hobhouse Henry Hobhouse may refer to: * Henry Hobhouse (archivist) (1776–1854), English archivist * Henry Hobhouse (East Somerset MP) Henry Hobhouse (1 March 1854 – 25 June 1937) was an English landowner and Liberal, and from 1886 Liberal Unionis ...
, making Beatrice Webb an aunt of peace activist Stephen Henry Hobhouse and of Liberal politician
Arthur Hobhouse Sir Arthur Lawrence Hobhouse (15 February 1886 – 20 January 1965) was a long-serving English local government Liberal politician, who is best remembered as the architect of the system of national parks of England and Wales. Early life Hobho ...
. Another sister, Blanche, married surgeon
William Harrison Cripps William Harrison Cripps (born West Ilsley, Berkshire, 15 January 1850; died London, 8 November 1923) was a prominent British surgeon. He was particularly noted for his expertise on cancer of the rectum. Early life Cripps was the second son of Ju ...
, brother to Theresa's husband
Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor, (3 October 1852 – 30 June 1941) was a British politician who crossed the floor from the Conservative to the Labour Party and was a strong supporter of the League of Nations and of Church of England ...
. The Cripps family was a wealthy political family, originally from
Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...
. A dissonant voice entered the family after Katherine Dobbs, the daughter of Beatrice's youngest sister Rosalind, married the journalist
Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romfo ...
. In the early 1930s, the young couple moved to Moscow, full of enthusiasm for the new Soviet system. Muggeridge's experience of reporting from the Soviet Union for the ''
Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', however, made him highly critical of the Webbs' optimistic views of the Soviet Union. On 29 March 1933 Beatrice referred in her diary to "Malcolm's curiously hysterical denunciation of the USSR and all its works in a letter to me...." The following day she noted that the ''
Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
'' had printed "another account of the famine in Russia, which certainly bears out Malcolm's reports." Yet, wrote Muggeridge, Beatrice "went on wanting to see Kitty and me." On their last visit, Beatrice showed her niece's husband a portrait of Lenin: "She had set the picture up as though it were a Velazquez, with special lighting coming from below."


Death and legacy

When Beatrice Webb died in 1943, she was cremated at
Woking Crematorium Woking Crematorium is a crematorium in Woking, a large town in the west of Surrey, England. Established in 1878, it was the first custom-built crematorium in the United Kingdom and is closely linked to the history of cremation in the UK. Loc ...
. The casket containing her ashes was buried in the garden of their house in Passfield Corner, as she had requested. Lord Passfield's ashes were also buried there when he died four years later. Shortly afterward, the nonagenarian
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
launched an ultimately successful
petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...
to have the remains of both moved to
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
. They now lie buried in the
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
of the Abbey, close to the ashes of their Labour Party colleagues
Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...
and
Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–19 ...
. Beatrice did not live to see the
welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
set up by the post-war Labour government. It was an enduring monument to her research and campaigning, before and after she married Sidney Webb. First outlined in the
Minority report (Poor Law) The Minority report was one of two reports published by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–1909, the other being Majority report. Headed by the Fabian socialist Beatrice Webb, it called for a system that was ra ...
of 1909, it would remain substantially intact until the 1980s. It is not certain that Beatrice Webb would have approved of the manner of its implementation and future management. As her niece Kitty commented:Kitty Muggeridge & Ruth Adams, ''Beatrice Webb: A life, 1858–1943'', London: Secker & Warburg, 1967, p. 177.
... although it was Beatrice herself who put the 20th-century ''zeitgeist'' into its most concrete form, in the Welfare State, something in her remained sturdily Victorian to the very end. "What has to be aimed at is not this or that improvement in material circumstances or physical comfort but an improvement in personal character," she wrote. She believed that citizens who were given benefits by the community ought to make an effort to improve themselves, or at least submit themselves to those who would improve them.


Archives

Beatrice Webb's papers, including her diaries, form part of the Passfield archive at the London School of Economics. The Webb Diaries are now digitised and available online at the
LSE LSE may refer to: Computing * LSE (programming language), a computer programming language * LSE, Latent sector error, a media assessment measure related to the hard disk drive storage technology * Language-Sensitive Editor, a text editor used ...
's Digital Library. Posts about Beatrice Webb regularly appear in the LSE Archives blog
Out of the box.


Writings

For a comprehensive bibliography, see Webbs on the Web, hosted by the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...
.


Works by Beatrice Webb

*''The Co-Operative Movement in Great Britain'' (1891) *''Women and the Factory Acts'' (1896) *''The Abolition of the Poor Law'' (1918) *'' Wages of Men and Women: Should they be Equal?'' (1919) *''My Apprenticeship'' (1926) *''A new Reform Bill'' (1931) *''Our Partnership by Beatrice Webb'' (1948), Longmans, Green & Co: London, New York, edited by
Barbara Drake Barbara Drake (3 October 1876 – 19 July 1963) was a member of the Fabian Society and trade unionist. She was born in Knightsbridge, London, the daughter of Daniel Meinertzhagen, a banker, and his wife, Georgina ''née'' Potter, sister of Be ...
& Margaret Cole at the request of Sidney Webb. Covers the period from 1892 up to 1911. *"The Diary of Beatrice Webb, 1873–1943", complete typescript and manuscript on microfiche, and ''Index to the Diary of Beatrice Webb 1873–1943'' with a preface by Matthew Anderson, "The text of the Diary" by Geoffrey Allen, "Historical Introduction" by Dame Margaret Cole DBE, "The Diary as Literature" by Norman Mackenzie, Chronology. (1978), Chadwyck-Healey Ltd. Bishops Stortford *''The Diaries of Beatrice Webb'' (2000), selected entries edited by Norman and Jeanne Mackenzie and abridged by Lynn Knight. Published by Virago in conjunction with the LSE: London. Covers period from 1873 to 1943; the diaries are also available in typescript and manuscript facsimile at LSE digital library, Beatrice Webb's diaries.


Works by Beatrice and Sidney Webb

*''
History of Trade Unionism ''The History of Trade Unionism'' (1894, new edition 1920) is a book by Sidney and Beatrice Webb on the British trade union movement's development before 1920. Outline First published in 1894, it is a detailed and influential accounting of the ...
'' (1894) *''
Industrial Democracy Industrial democracy is an arrangement which involves workers making decisions, sharing responsibility and authority in the workplace. While in participative management organizational designs workers are listened to and take part in the decisi ...
'' (1897); translated into Russian by Lenin as ''The Theory and Practice of British Trade Unionism'', St Petersburg, 1900. *''The Webbs' Australian Diary'' (1898) *''Bibliography of road making and maintenance in Great Britain'' (1906), a sixpenny pamphlet for the Roads Improvement Association. *'' English Local Government Vol. I-X'' (1906 through 1929) *''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 Civilization?'' (1935 Vol I Vol II, 1st edn. The 2nd and 3rd editions of 1938 and 1941, respectively, dropped the "?" from the title) *''The Truth About Soviet Russia'' (1942). The introduction to ''Soviet Communism'' (1941), reprinted as a brochure with a preface about the Webbs by
George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
, and the text of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, translated by
Anna Louise Strong Anna Louise Strong (November 24, 1885 – March 29, 1970) was an American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.Archives West,Anna Loui ...
.


See also

*
Feminist economics Feminist economics is the critical study of economics and economies, with a focus on gender-aware and inclusive economic inquiry and policy analysis. Feminist economic researchers include academics, activists, policy theorists, and practition ...
*
List of feminist economists This is an incomplete alphabetical list by surname of notable feminist economists, experts in the social science of feminist economics, past and present. Only economists with biographical articles in Wikipedia are listed here. Feminist econo ...


References

Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time, Volume 1, ''The Green Stick'', pp. 206–210, Collins 1972


External links

*
Great Thinkers: Jose Harris FBA on Beatrice Webb FBA
podcast, The British Academy *






The Webb Diaries full digital versions

The Webbs on the Web bibliography
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Beatrice English economists English sociologists 1858 births 1943 deaths British social reformers English suffragists English socialists English women writers Feminist economists English socialist feminists British cooperative organizers British vegetarianism activists British women economists British women sociologists Labor historians Members of the Fabian Society People associated with the London School of Economics People from Gloucester Potter family Presidents of the Fabian Society Writers about the Soviet Union Burials at Westminster Abbey 19th-century British scientists 20th-century British scientists 19th-century English writers 20th-century English writers 20th-century English women writers 19th-century English women writers Fellows of the British Academy Passfield National Council of Women of Great Britain members People from Liphook