Beatrice Webb (socialism)

Question 1

What type of socialism did Beatrice Webb believe in?

Answer 1

Parliamentary/evolutionary/gradualist socialism
- did not believe revolution was needed for socialism and believed that they were ‘chaotic, inefficient and counter-productive’

Question 2

What was the personal/historical context impacting their writing?

Answer 2

• born upper middle class; her family owned summer houses and a residence in London
• her cousin was Charles Booth (wrote Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People of London) and she helped him to investigate sweated industries by going undercover, as well as researching dock labour in the Tower Hamlets