Graham Wallas (31 May 1858 – 9 August 1932) was an English

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader 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. T ...

and a co-founder of the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

Biography

Born in

Monkwearmouth Monkwearmouth is an area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in North East England. Monkwearmouth is located at the north side of the mouth of the River Wear. It was one of the three original settlements on the banks of the River Wear along with Bish ...

, Sunderland, Wallas was the older brother of

Katharine 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 ...

, later to become a politician. He was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...

and

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12t ...

. It was at Oxford that Wallas abandoned his religion. He taught at Highgate School until 1885, when he resigned rather than participate in communion, and was President of the

Rationalist Press Association The Rationalist Association, originally the Rationalist Press Association, is an organization in the United Kingdom, founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual tenor ...

. Wallas joined the Fabian Society in April 1886, following his acquaintances Sidney Webb and

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 ...

. He was to resign in 1904 in protest at Fabian support for

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 C ...

's tariff policy. In 1894 he was elected to the London School Board as a Progressive. On 18 December 1897 he married the writer

Ada Radford Ada Wallas or Ada (or "Audrey") Radford (10 December 1859 – 12 October 1934) was an English writer and teacher. Life Wallas was born in Plymouth in 1859. Her father was George David Radford who was a partner in a drapers in Mannamead. Her mo ...

. The following year, they had a daughter, May Wallas, who overcame diphtheria and flu to go to

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

, like her mother. Wallas became chair of the board's school management committee in 1897, and until he was defeated in 1907, the encouragement of educational reform and the raising of academic standards in state schools were some his main activities. He was appointed a university extension lecturer in 1890 and lectured at the newly-founded

from 1895. In 1898, he published a biography of the early-19th-century

utilitarian In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charac ...

radical

Francis Place Francis Place (3 November 1771 in London – 1 January 1854 in London) was an English social reformer. Early life He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and Mary Gray. His father was originally a journeyman baker. He then became a Marshalse ...

. His most important academic writings were ''Human Nature in Politics'' (1908) and its successors, ''Great Society'' (1914) and ''Our Social Heritage'' (1921).

Ideas

Wallas argued in ''Great Society'' (1914) that a social-psychological analysis could explain the problems created by the impact of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

on modern society. He contrasted the role of nature and nurture in modern society, concluded that humanity must depend largely on the improvements in nurture and put his faith in the development of stronger international operation. In ''The Art of Thought'' (1926), he drew on the work of

Hermann von Helmholtz Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Associatio ...

and Henri Poincaré to propose one of the first complete models of the creative process, as consisting of the four-stage process of preparation (or saturation), incubation, illumination, and verification), which remains highly cited in scholarly works on creativity.

Works

References

External links

* *
Works by Graham Wallas
at

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

Catalogue of the Wallas papers
at th

of the London School of Economics.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallas, Graham 1858 births 1932 deaths Academics of the London School of Economics British sociologists Education activists English political philosophers English psychologists English socialists Social psychologists Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford People educated at Shrewsbury School People from Sunderland Members of London County Council Members of the Fabian Society Progressive Party (London) politicians Members of the London School Board Educational researchers

Biography

Ideas

Works

References

Further reading

External links