The Diaries of Beatrice Webb

by Beatrice Potter Webb

Fabian socialist, social researcher and reformer, and cofounder of the London School of Economics, Beatrice Webb (1858-1943) was at the center of British intellectual and political life for nearly seventy years. Her diaries offer a remarkable record of her achievements, and they reveal the private face behind a formidable public persona. From age fifteen until her death, Webb confided in her diary. She describes her obsessive and self-thwarted passion for politician Joseph Chamberlain, her work as a young woman in London's East End, and the troubled courtship that led to her marriage and famous partnership with Sidney Webb. She tells of the books they wrote together and the people they knew-Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Ramsay MacDonald, Leonard and Virginia Woolf-in pages rich in anecdote and insight. She describes their friendship with Bernard Shaw and despairs of H.G. Wells's peccadilloes. The Diaries chart the collapse of Liberalism and the rise of the Labour Movement, and set Beatrice Webb's faith in Social Communism against the growth of fascism in the 1930s. They encompass the Boer War and the devastation of two world wars, and bring to life the social and cultural changes that introduced the modern world. Alongside this record is an intensely moving account of a long life, of friendships and family, conviction, and self-doubt. From this unparalleled document emerges a woman whose shrewd judgement, skilled portraiture, and refreshingly ironic tone establish her as one of the greatest diarists of her time.

Genres: Memoir, Biography

630 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 1985

About the author

Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield (née Potter) was English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term "collective bargaining". She was among the founders of the London School of Economics and played a crucial role in forming the Fabian Society.
In 1890 Beatrice Potter was introduced to Sidney Webb, whose help she sought with her research. They married in 1892, and until her death 51 years later shared political and professional activities.

Reviews

[Charlie Teale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable woman.who succeeded I'm a man's world but on her own terms. Truly an.inspiration