Reappraising J.A. Hobson

J.A.Hobson was an influential social, economic and political theorist at the turn of the century. Fifty years after his death, eight scholars reassess the importance and relevance of his work today and affirm him as a major British thinker. These studies place Hobson in context by explaining his intellectual antecedents: Cobden, Ruskin and 19th-century social and psychological theories and economic thought. The contributors examine the circumstances that fashioned his ideas, such as his activities for the university extension movement, and the development of his famous views on imperialism. The place of his economic theories in relation to economic thought and Keynesianism in particular, the conservative limits of his radicalism and his internationalism are also investigated afresh. The book provides an overview of the novelty and incisiveness of Hobson's contribution to British liberal theory and radical practice. The book serves as a companion volume to "J.A.Hobson: A Reader", also edited by Michael Freeden.