Conceptualizing The State: Innovation And Dispute In British Political Thought 1880-1914 (Oxford Historical Monographs)

Conceptualizing The State: Innovation And Dispute In British Political Thought 1880-1914 (Oxford Historical Monographs)

This book is concerned with the way in which the concept of the state was invoked in British political argument between 1880 and 1914. It central claim is that the decades bracketing the turn of the century witnessed a significant change in the prevailing terms of British political discourse - that the concept of the state, hitherto a relative stranger to British debate, emerged as a key component of the idiom in which critical reflection on politics was cast. James Meadowcroft surveys the ways in which the state was understood in this period, and also presents a detailed analysis of the conceptions of the state in the work of six prominent theorists: Herbert Spencer, Hugh Cecil, Bernard Bosanquet, L T Hobhouse, J A Hobson and Ramsay MacDonald. Review `this is a finely honed and well-argued monograph, with a challenging thesis and plenty of material within individual chapters for students and scholars to examine, whetting the appetite for further reflection on the state' Andrew Vincent, Australian National University, Political Studies, Vol. 45, No. 1, March '97 `Meadowcroft has his own distinctive voice in the discussion, writes in a stylish academic prose and raises far more serious issues about method than the others. If his book takes us back into well-trodden territory, moreover, it has the virtues of being intelligent, brutish and short ... stimulating text' Times Literary Supplement `a close examination of the political discourse of the period 1870-1914, trawling widely through periodical articles and parliamentary speeches' G.R. Searle, University of East Anglia, The Historical Association 1997 `an important contribution to the study of political thought ... The subject is approached through detailed analysis of six major theorists.' John Clarke, University of Buckingham, EHR Nov. 97 From the Back Cover This book is concerned with the way in which the concept of the state was invoked in British political argument between 1880 and 1914. Its central claim is that the decades bracketing the turn of the century witnessed a significant change in the prevailing terms of British political discourse, that the concept of the state, hitherto a relative stranger to British debate, emerged as a key component of the idiom in which critical reflection on politics was cast. James Meadowcroft surveys the ways in which the state was understood in this period, and also presents a detailed analysis of the conceptions of the state in the work of six prominent theorists: Herbert Spencer, Hugh Cecil, Bernard Bosanquet, L. T. Hobhouse, J. A. Hobson, and Ramsay MacDonald. About the Author James Meadowcroft is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Sheffield.