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Sidney Webb

1859 – 1947 British Fabian socialist, co-founder of the LSE, Labour politician

Fabian reformer who, with his wife Beatrice, founded the LSE and shaped early Labour policy.

Affiliations
Leading Fabian Society member; co-founder of the London School of Economics and the New Statesman; later a Labour cabinet minister.

Sidney Webb was a central figure in the Fabian Society, which argued for gradual, evolutionary socialism through what it called permeation of existing institutions. As a trustee of a Fabian bequest he chose to fund the London School of Economics in 1895, which he founded together with Beatrice Webb, George Bernard Shaw and Graham Wallas. He served as a Labour MP and cabinet minister and helped draft the party's 1918 constitution. Late in life he and Beatrice wrote a favourable account of the Soviet Union, 'Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation?', a judgement many later critics said overlooked Stalin's repression.

Connections

  • family of Beatrice Webb — Husband and lifelong writing partner.
  • family of Beatrice Webb — Wife and lifelong writing partner.
  • associate of Bronislaw Malinowski — Both were central figures at the early London School of Economics.
  • associate of Bronislaw Malinowski — Both were central to the early London School of Economics.
  • associate of George Bernard Shaw — Close Fabian collaborator and co-founder of the LSE.
  • associate of George Bernard Shaw — Fellow Fabian and co-founder of the LSE.
  • associate of Graham Wallas — Fellow Fabian and co-founder of the LSE.
  • associate of Ralf Dahrendorf — Chronicled and assessed the founders' project in his LSE history.

In the timeline

Wikipedia