''The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism'' is a non-fiction book written by the Irish playwright

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

. The book employs

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

thought. It was written in 1928 after his sister-in-law,

Mary Stewart Cholmondeley Mary Cholmondeley ( ; 8 June 1859 – 15 July 1925) was an English novelist. Her bestseller '' Red Pottage'' satirised religious hypocrisy and the narrowness of country life. It was adapted as a silent film in 1918. Family Mary Cholmondeley w ...

, asked him to write a pamphlet explaining socialism. The book was later re-released as the first Pelican Book in 1937. The dust jacket artwork for the British and American first editions was by the British artist and sculptor

Eric Kennington Eric Henri Kennington (12 March 1888 – 13 April 1960) was an English sculptor, artist and illustrator, and an official British official war artists, war artist in both of the world wars. As a war artist, Kennington specialised in depictions ...

. Shaw examines various socialist ideas, including the issue of private property under socialism, population control, the difficulty of creating non-market-based means to ascribe value to human activities and the problem of wealth distribution. He explores Marxist concepts such as

surplus value In Marxian economics, surplus value is the difference between the amount raised through a sale of a product and the amount it cost to manufacture it: i.e. the amount raised through sale of the product minus the cost of the materials, plant and ...

along with the ideas of non-Marxist socialist thinkers such as

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist, Social philosophy, social philosopher and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of ...

. The book inspired a respectful and detailed reply from trailblazing sociologist and prison reformer

Lilian Le Mesurier Lillian or Lilian can refer to: People and fictional characters * Lillian (given name) or Lilian, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Isidore Lillian (1882-1960), American Yiddish theatre playwright and lyr ...

in ''The Socialist Woman's Guide to Intelligence: a reply to Mr. Shaw'' first published in 1929. Le Mesurier objected to Shaw's self-satisfied and condescending tone.Thelma McCormack, "The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism" by George Bernard Shaw, ''American Journal of Sociology'', vol. 91, no. 1 (July 1985), pp. 209–211. In the late 1930s,

Allen Lane Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fictio ...

, the founder of Penguin Books, wished to create a new line, to be called "Pelican" books, which would be dedicated to publishing clear expositions of current social debates. He desired that Shaw's ''Intelligent Woman's Guide'' should become the first in that series. Shaw wrote to Lane that since almost 10 years had elapsed the book's title needed to be changed to ''The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism, and Fascism'', and under that title the book became the first Pelican in two paperbound volumes in 1937.

References

External links

* * 1928 non-fiction books British non-fiction books Books by George Bernard Shaw 1928 in economic history Works about capitalism Works about socialism {{poli-philo-book-stub