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Title: The History of the Fabian Society

Author: Edward R. Pease

Release Date: October 11, 2004 [EBook #13715]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY ***

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The History of the

Fabian Society

By

Edward R. Pease

Secretary for Twenty-five Years

With Twelve Illustrations

NEW YORK
E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Preface

The History of the Fabian Society will perhaps chiefly interest the
members, present and past, of the Society. But in so far as this book
describes the growth of Socialist theory in England, and the influence
of Socialism on the political thought of the last thirty years, I hope
it will appeal to a wider circle.

I have described in my book the care with which the Fabian Tracts have
been revised and edited by members of the Executive Committee. Two of my
colleagues, Sidney Webb and Bernard Shaw, have been good enough to
revise this volume in like manner, and I have to thank them for
innumerable corrections in style, countless suggestions of better words
and phrases, and a number of amplifications and additions, some of which
I have accepted without specific acknowledgment, whilst others for one
reason or another are to be found in notes; and I am particularly
grateful to Bernard Shaw for two valuable memoranda on the history of
Fabian Economics, and on Guild Socialism, which are printed as an
appendix.

The MS. or proofs have also been read by Mrs. Sidney Webb, Mrs. Bernard
Shaw, Sir Sydney Olivier, Graham Wallas, W. Stephen Sanders, and R.C.K.
Ensor, to each of whom my cordial thanks are due for suggestions,
additions, and corrections.

To Miss Bertha Newcombe I am obliged for permission to reproduce the
interesting sketch which forms the frontispiece.

E.R.P.
THE PENDICLE,
LIMPSFIELD,
SURREY,

_January_, 1916.

Contents

Chapter I

The Sources of Fabian Socialism

The ideas of the early eighti