George Bernard Shaw
Irish playwright and Fabian socialist (1856–1950) who dated his political awakening to hearing Henry George speak in London in 1882 and reading Progress and Poverty — a conduit that carried George's rent theory into British Fabian socialism.
Overview
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), the Irish playwright and critic, dated his conversion to economics and socialism to September 5, 1882, when he attended a London meeting addressed by Henry George and then read Progress and Poverty, an encounter he later said "changed the whole current of my life."[1] Shaw went on to study Marx before joining the Fabian Society in 1884, on whose executive committee he served for 27 years.[1]
Historian of economic thought Mark Blaug credits Shaw, alongside Sidney Webb, with fusing Ricardo's and George's rent theory — reworked through the marginal-utility revolution — into the distinctive analytical framework of Fabian socialism, notably in the landmark essay collection Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889).[2]
Significance
Shaw's trajectory illustrates one of the clearest cultural conduits by which George's land-value ideas entered British political life: George's American critique of land monopoly, carried by his London speaking tours, helped radicalize a generation of British socialists who then recast it within a home-grown Fabian, gradualist program rather than George's own single-tax movement.
See Also
- Henry George — the speech and book that Shaw credited with his conversion
- Progress and Poverty (1879) — the book Shaw read immediately afterward
- Economic Theory in Retrospect — Blaug's account of Shaw's and the Fabians' fusion of George's rent theory with marginalism
- Land Value Tax — the policy tradition Shaw's conversion fed into
Sources
- Mark Bevir, biographical accounts of Shaw's 1882 conversion, summarized in Encyclopedia.com, "Shaw, George Bernard (1856–1950)" — used for the 1882 meeting, Shaw's own "changed the whole current of my life" remark, and his 1884 Fabian Society membership. encyclopedia.com
- Mark Blaug (1997), Economic Theory in Retrospect, 5th ed., Cambridge University Press, Ch. 6, §38 — used for Shaw's role (with Sidney Webb) in fusing George's and Ricardo's rent theory with marginal utility in Fabian socialism. wiki summary