Fabian Society Research Articles

Presidential Address: The 1890s Debate over the Democratic Control of Hospitals in Britain and New Zealand

AbstractAnna Clark's presidential plenary to the 2018 North American Conference on British Studies in Vancouver, British Columbia, compares scandals over the mistreatment of patients and nurses that led to demands for popular control of hospitals in both Britain and New Zealand in the 1890s. A high death rate at the Chelsea Hospital for Women in London, located near a Pasteur Institute for animal research on vaccination, incited fears of human vivisection. The high death rate of nurses at the London Hospital provoked newspaper exposés and parliamentary investigations and calls for the municipalization of voluntary hospitals. In Christchurch, New Zealand, a debate over the rudeness of doctors and nurses enraged citizens. The flames of these scandals were sparked by newspaper agitation but fanned by feminists, socialists, trade unionists, and animal-rights organizations. In response to fears around experimentation, Fabian socialists Havelock Ellis, Harry Roberts, and Honnor Morten proposed democratic control of hospitals. These demands, focusing on patients’ rights and nurses’ health, differed from the hospital reform movement that urged hospitals to become more economical by forcing patients to pay. They also diverged from Beatrice and Sidney Webb's admonitions that the state must oversee citizens’ health for the nation to function efficiently. Although the calls for the democratic control of hospitals did not succeed, they might be seen as germs of a patient-centered approach to hospital care.

Between panacea and poison: “democracy” in British socialist thought, 1881–1891

ABSTRACT The history of democracy is increasingly understood as not only the recovery of its practices and conceptualisations but also of its signifiers. In order to grasp the transition of the word “democracy” from a reviled to a revered term in Britain, this article focuses on socialist uses of the democratic idiom during the 1880s. Across a study of socialist publications, speeches and newspapers, three different uses of “democracy” emerge. First, the word could mean a political ideal to be materialised, through universal suffrage but more widely by means of popular and direct control of Parliament. Second, the term was seen as a dangerous illusion that cast a veil over capitalist oppression. Third, “democracy” could denote a political reality already present in Britain, which needed to be reflected in the economic sphere. Although sometimes diverging, these uses can be linked to three important socialist organisations: the Social Democratic Federation (S.D.F.), the Socialist League (S.L.) and the Fabian Society (F.S.). Recovering these distinctive uses illuminates the relationship between “democracy” and “socialism” and offers a key with which to understand our current political landscape.

Economic Democracy as Political Theology: The British Anglican Socialist Tradition

The richest tradition of Christian socialism is the British Anglican one. In the beginning it was cooperative and ecumenical in the fashion of its founders, F. D. Maurice and John Ludlow. Later it became predominantly Anglo-Catholic, politically activist, and ideologically diffuse, but always with a strong social-ethical basis. Many Anglican socialists stuck to the cooperative tradition, some joined the Fabian movement after it arose in 1884, some joined the Social Union reformers who came out of Oxford, some gave highest priority to socializing land, many joined the workers party movement after it arose in 1893, and some became leaders of the guild socialist movement that took off in 1912. But British Anglican socialism had an ethical well-spring that qualified its commitment to all these ideologies, and at its best it was powerfully anti-imperialist. Anglican socialists denied that a Fabian, Syndical, Social Unionist, or Marxist ideology should be more binding than their commitment to an ethic of equality, freedom, and cooperative community. This conviction helped them play a distinct role in British politics, especially as exemplified by William Temple and R. H. Tawney. Temple's model of social-funded guild socialism was far ahead of its time and remains the most promising model of big-scale economic democracy.

The Fabianisation of the British Empire: Post-War Colonial Summer Conferences and Community Development in Kenya, 1948–1956

This article examines the influence of the Fabian Society on post-war colonial development from 1948 to 1956. This study demonstrates that a primary vehicle for the ‘Fabianisation’ of the British Empire was the Cambridge Summer Conference series, particularly the conference convened in 1948. Held on the encouragement of initiative in African society, the conference devised a policy framework of community development based on a model of mass education long favoured by Arthur Creech Jones, secretary of state for the colonies and former chair of the Fabian Colonial Bureau (FCB). This article also looks at the practical outcomes of that influence through a case study of community development in Kenya. It demonstrates that, despite Creech Jones' appointment as secretary of state for the colonies, severe challenges remained for the realisation of Fabian-favoured designs, including those posed by inertia and resistance in the territories, which emanated from both colonial officialdom and indigenous populations. Moreover, the findings indicate that the fulfilment of British development goals was critically dependent on the translation of those goals through the medium of indigenous cultural institutions. While the findings attest that ‘Fabianisation’ during this period produced tangible development projects that concretely impacted social welfare in the colonies, the results suggest an ambiguity surrounding the relative success of ‘Fabianised’ development. The findings indicate that ‘Fabianisation’, dependent upon the processes of negotiation that transpired between the African communities being ‘developed’ and the agents responsible for change, and the ability of those agents to inspire and motivate the indigenous populations, was at best partial.

CULTURAL INTERTEXT IN G.B. SHAW’S PLAY “CANDIDA”

The article explores cultural intertext and forms of intertextuality in G.B. Shaw’s play “Candida”. The cultural intertext in the play was influenced by the author’s life circumstances, namely his position as an art critic, and his social stance alike. G.B. Shaw studied H. Ibsen’s legacy extensively and developed the Norwegian playwright’s views in his own works – which resulted in Shaw developing his own art theory and the principles of “drama of ideas”. “Candida” is a vivid example of “drama of ideas”, wherein the conflicts are determined not by external circumstances, but rather by ideas and philosophies expressed by the characters. Cultural intertext plays an important role in characters’ descriptions. In his play, G.B. Shaw uses different kinds of cultural intertext: artistic and literary (Titian, R. Browning, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Voltaire, the legend of Tristan and Isolde), religious (F. D. Maurice, the Virgin Mary, archangel Zadkiel), social (S. Grand, K. Marx, Fabian Society). It was determined that the name ‘Candida’ has been widely employed in culture, both in biblical stories and classical works of literature (Voltaire, E.T.A. Hoffmann etc). However, G.B. Shaw’s reception of this literary context is critical. While associations can be drawn between “Candida” and “Little Zaches, Great Zinnober” (in terms of plot, imagery, symbols and motives), it is clear that the British playwright seeks to enrich classical images with modern meaning. Therefore, he turns to the genre of mystery play, which allows for use of biblical imagery while also securing a tight bond to reality. The plot is based around the framework of a love triangles. As to how the conflict is resolved, on the surface level (text), the status quo pertains and societal norms are reinforced; however, on a deeper level (subtext), deciphering intertextual allusions and reminiscences changes perception of the conflict by the reader and allows to connect it to a broader cultural realm.

Negotiating an "Economic Revolution": History, Collectivism, and Liberalism in William Clarke's Thought.

Like a number of contemporary progressive thinkers, William Clarke (1852-1901) was a socialist with liberal leanings. Believing in the benefits of collective ownership and democratic reform, he joined the Fabian Society in 1886 before resigning from it in 1897. This article seeks to account for Clarke's intellectual development from socialism to liberalism by focusing on the implications of his political writings. It argues that this estrangement partly resulted from the incompatibility between the principle of historic necessity underlying his critique of private ownership and his ongoing commitment to democracy and pragmatic reform.

The Political Rhapsody and Ethical Expression in Bernard Shaw’s <i>The Apple Cart</i>

As a Nobel Prize winner, Bernard Shaw is undoubtedly one of the most prominent and prolific playwrights of the Victorian age. His works have exerted a great influence on world literature. The studies of Shaw and his works have achieved fruitful results. However, most scholars have long focused on Shaw’s early problem plays and paid little attention to his later political plays. In fact, Shaw discussed more serious themes such as social reality, political criticism and ethical ideals in his later years through unrestrained artistic creation. He wrote dramas in a rhapsodic way which represented the political crisis and fantasy of British society at that time. As a member of the Fabian Society, Shaw never gives up his ethical thoughts and his political rhapsody of social reform and development, which are clearly expressed in his later plays. As Shaw’s most important political satire, <i>The Apple Cart</i> is a case in point. In this play, Shaw combined current events, fantasy, and philosophic thought concerned by the public, criticized the British parliamentary system and bourgeois democracy at that time, and clearly expressed his political ideal and ethical appeal. That is to build a better world order, and reshape the virtuous social ethics and moral codes.

Educational Ideas of Annie Besant

Annie Besant was an Irish political activist, free-thinker and Fabian socialist. After embracing Theosophy under the tutelage of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a Russian mystic, Besant embarked on her mission of propagating theosophical ideals, and reached the shores of India in 1893. However, in India Hinduism fascinated her to such an extent that she devoted herself to promoting Hinduism. She toured the length and breadth of India, and lectured intensely on the lofty ideals of Hinduism. However, Besant was of the opinion that absence of religious education in government schools and colleges and teaching of Christianity in missionary educational institutions was responsible for religious neutrality and scepticism among Hindu youth, and hence the fallen state of Hinduism. To remedy this state, she emphasised the need for its revival, and propagated the idea that religious education of Hindu youths should become an integral part of their education. In order to concretise these ideas, Besant established a college and school for the religious education of Hindu youth in the holy city of Benares, in the then North Western Provinces of British India, in 1898. Besant is widely known in India for her political activities as founder of Home Rule Movement and as the first women President of Indian National Congress, the chief political party involved in the struggle for national freedom. Although Besant’s political career in India has been extensively researched, little is known about her educational ideas and activities. This paper analyses Besant’s ideas on education, and show how, rather than being a promoter of modernity, she supported, upheld and institutionalised caste hierarchy.

Margaret Macnamara: a ‘New Woman’ of the Independent Theatre Movement

In this article Patricia Lufkin examines the work of Margaret Macnamara, a remarkable feminist playwright whose work has fallen into obscurity but who deserves attention as an important female participant in the Independent Theatre Movement and the Fabian Society. Macnamara’s associations and collaborations with key figures of the time, including George Bernard Shaw, are explored, and her progressive thought and participation in key organizations demonstrated. Importantly, Lufkin analyzes Macnamara’s play The Gates of the Morning (1908), highlighting its feminist critique of religion and its patriarchal influence. The critical response to her work was mixed, yet both positive and hostile reviews acknowledged that the play was a competent and stirring example of the new drama of progressive ideas, and helped to bring the ‘woman question’ to the forefront of people’s minds. Patricia Lufkin received her PhD from Louisiana State University, and is now teaching at Arkansas State University Mid-South. Her research focuses on early twentieth-century British theatre, most significantly on the life and work of Macnamara and Samuel Beckett.

Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters

Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters

The McMillan Sisters, The Roots of the Open-Nursery, and Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

This article explores the impetus and motivation for the McMillan sisters, Christian Socialists committed to creating change for the working class in England, to create an innovative and enduring ideal of nursery education through the open-air nursery. Influenced by their membership in the Fabian Society and the Independent Labour Party, they created health and dental clinics for people living in deprivation in Yorkshire and East and South East London, England, campaigned for the 1906 Provision of School Meals Act, and created night camps for deprived children in Deptford in 1908.The night camps were the inspiration for educating young children and in March 1914, the open-air nursery opened for the youngest children living in the tenements of Deptford.Using archival methods, the conclusion is reached that the McMillan sisters, and Margaret specifically, worked tirelessly to create social change through the open-air nursery serving the deprived surrounding community. By modelling good practice, both educationally and hygienically, they hoped to make a difference in the lives of families stuck in a cycle of poverty. The enduring work and ideas formulated in this nursery has informed many initiatives focused upon reducing social disadvantage, to include the UK framework ‘Every Child Matters’.

Love and War from both Arms and the Man and Major Barbara

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), the Irish comic playwright, literary critic, and a Fabian socialist thinker occupies a prominent position in the history of modern English thought in general and English drama in specifics. This is mainly due to his unconventional treatment of the conventional topics or ideas in his plays. Shaw wrote sixty-three plays which are all comedies that criticize wittily the social diseases prevalent in his society during his lifetime. Shaw’s plays are dramas of ideas. He deals with many themes in his plays such as morality, wealth/poverty, society and class, power, heroism, violence, war and love.  This research analyzes two themes of love and war in his two well-known plays Arms and the Man (1894) and Major Barbara (1905). In the study, the complex meanings of love and war will be tackled with special focus on the unconventional outlook of the writer about the traditional concepts of love and war.The aim of the study is to confirm the intermingle of love and war in Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man as well as Major Barbara. The approach chosen by the researcher of the study will be cultural materialism, as it is broadly known as new historicism. This approach will focus on the social, political, and cultural events that happened during the period of Shaw’s lifetime and how those events are reflected and have been dealt with in the mentioned dramatic works under study.Â

СТАНОВЛЕННЯ ТА ЕВОЛЮЦІЯ ЛЕЙБОРИСТСЬКОЇ ПАРТІЇ ВЕЛИКОЇ БРИТАНІЇ

The article examines the processes of organizational development of the British Labour Party in the early XXth century, the evolution of the party structure and political programme in the twentieths of the XXth century. Special attention is paid to researching the formation of the Social Democratic Federation, Fabian Society and Independent Labour Party till the time of its joining to the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and adopting the “Labour Party” name in 1906. The author’s aim was to comprehensively investigate the political manifests and activities of those organizations on the way of transformation from separate trade-unions and socialist groups to apparent union of labour, and then to the mass and wide represented parliamentary party. However, the variety of social base of those societies is distinguished, and difference of socialist views and tactics of achieving the final purpose are emphasized. Considerable attention is paid to the system of the individual membership and results thereof in the process of the evolution of the Labour Party’s organization. The reorganization of the Labour party in 1918, Representation of the People Act, 1918 and the crisis in the Liberal party were favourable for the further evolution of the Labour Party. It is summarized that the social base, the history of party’s birth, the conditions of formation and the party system had influenced the process of the evolution of the ideological and political concepts of Labourizm.

The disillusionment of Robert Dell: the intellectual journey of a Catholic socialist

ABSTRACTThis article considers attempts in the late nineteenth century to bring about a confluence of Catholicism and Socialism in Britain by examining the writing and correspondence of one man, the art critic and Fabian socialist Robert Dell. Beginning with Dell’s involvement as a young man in London-based radical politics, the article examines his efforts to bring his socialist politics and Catholic faith together. Dell attempted this through stressing a narrative of Catholic collectivism, under the aegis of a benevolent Church, contrasted with a post-Reformation Protestant individualism leading to the inequities of capitalism. The appeal of Catholicism in a Victorian Britain undergoing a collective crisis of faith is addressed. The second part of the article documents the failure of these attempts and Dell’s disillusionment with the Catholic hierarchy that by 1908 had led to a complete break on Dell’s part with the Catholic establishment. The catalyst for this break was the brutal treatment of Catholic Modernists such as George Tyrrell, Maude Petre and St George Mivart by the Vatican and the English Catholic leadership. Dell’s final rejection of organised Catholicism is charted through pamphlets, newspaper articles and personal correspondence. Ultimately, the article considers how Dell’s early political and theological career reflects on the relative positions of Catholicism and socialism at the turn of the twentieth century, and more broadly the dynamics of personal belief and political allegiances.

The case against historical necessity in English and German socialism: Eduard Bernstein, Hubert Bland and the social-democratic turn in the late nineteenth century

ABSTRACTBuilding on Eduard Bernstein’s encounter with Fabian socialists when he lived in London, this paper seeks to draw a parallel between his call for efficient wide-ranging reformism and the plea of Hubert Bland, one of the contributors to Fabian Essays in Socialism (1889), for a workers’ party. Both Bland, who criticized the optimism of his fellow-Fabians underlying the strategy of permeation, and Bernstein, who opposed the Social-Democratic Party’s revolutionary rhetoric, repudiated historic necessity as a founding principle for socialism. Through different approaches, this common stance paves the way for a social-democratic movement aiming to combine reformist efficiency with freedom.

Introduction: Shaw and Classical Literature—What You See Is Not Always What You Get

Introduction: Shaw and Classical Literature—What You See Is Not Always What You Get

London: Water and the Making of the Modern City by John Broich

Reviewed by: London: Water and the Making of the Modern City by John Broich Leslie Tomory (bio) London: Water and the Making of the Modern City. By John Broich. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013. Pp. 232. $32. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, private water companies supplied most cities in Britain. Municipal provision was rare. This would change profoundly, however, as municipalities acquired private companies in almost all major cities throughout the country. By 1900, urban water supply was largely in public hands. The glaring exception to this pattern was the capital city, London. It is this anomaly that John Broich sets out to explain. From the outset he makes clear that the issue was fundamentally one of politics, and so poses the question in a novel way: how did London water supply become so politically charged that rival factions battled over the nature of its governance for years? The first chapter describes how water supply became a symbol and a crucial component of the modernization of British cities. The reform of municipal governance that began in the 1830s eliminated the old local corporations and replaced them with elected town councils, with the exception of London. At the same time, a sense of crisis was dawning as cholera epidemics swept the country and Edwin Chadwick and his fellow reformers pressed for public action to improve the environmental health of towns. Reformers repeatedly condemned for-profit water companies for their failure to provide adequate clean water, and a royal commission in the 1840s recommended that towns seize control of water supply. Over the next couple of decades, the momentum for municipal water supply grew. Governments generally eschewed regulation in favor of public ownership because water supply became a centerpiece of the municipal reform movement. It served as an example of “moral government” in transforming the urban environment. Once in control, towns set about increasing supply. Tory politicians often opposed these schemes largely by complaining of their enormous costs. [End Page 264] London faced the same pressure for the reform as other cities. Indeed, the reform movement often was centered in London. It was, however, different in many ways. Many parliamentary acts did not apply to the metropolis as local political pressure created exceptions, often filled by special London-only laws. In addition, many new water companies had been founded after 1800, leading to a period of intense competition and allowing some to argue that commercial self-interest would ensure the best supply. The movement for “moral government,” however, led to the creation of the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) in 1855 to deal with the more pressing sewerage problem that had turned the Thames into a vast open gutter. Lacking the power and legitimacy of a town council, the MBW failed to move on to water supply. When the London County Council (LCC) replaced the MBW in 1889, it turned to the goal of municipalizing water supply with vigor. As the council was filled with members of the Fabian socialist movement, water supply was to be a vehicle for launching a revolution in local government toward a communitarian society, too long delayed by the central government’s unwillingness to reform London’s political structures. The Fabians’ desires soon collided with the Parliament’s, as it was then controlled by the Tories. Proposals to draw water from Welsh valleys were repeatedly defeated. Drought in the 1890s finally prompted the long-sought change to municipal ownership, but the national Conservatives parried the LCC’s moves by creating supra-municipal regional boards to run water, gas, and other services, diluting the LCC voting power by giving the less politically radical surrounding areas and towns disproportionate voting rights. Given its relative brevity and the chronological focus, this book is really the history of the LCC’s struggle with Parliament from the 1880s to the creation of the Metropolitan Water Board in 1903. For this period, the book is an effective history. Its date range, however, means that some of its claims about the deficiencies of private water companies are overstated. They certainly had very serious failures in the early nineteenth century, but Broich too readily accepts contemporary complaints about the companies. Some...

The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children’s Literature: Heroes and Eagles ed. by Lisa Maurice

Reviewed by: The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children’s Literature: Heroes and Eagles ed. by Lisa Maurice Jameela Lares (bio) The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children’s Literature: Heroes and Eagles, edited by Lisa Maurice. Leiden: Brill, 2015. This collection of thirteen essays attempts to demonstrate how the Greco-Roman world has been variously “received” in works of children’s literature, and especially how such “sites of reception” encode later ideological viewpoints for delivery to the child reader. This “reception” approach to classical literature, in which classics are understood to be “ante-texts” and adaptations and retellings as “receiving texts” (4), is a relatively recent but dynamic branch of classical studies. The contributors to this volume are specialists in classics, children’s literature, or both, and they describe a range of materials: Anglo-American but also Polish and French literature, novels and picture books, but also video games, graphic novels (bandes déssinées), and comic strips. Virtually all of the essays offer convincing proof for their claims along with extensive notes and bibliography for further context. The essays tend to be long on description and short on analysis, but properly so, since the work of such a text should surely be to establish a context and terms of discussion so that analysis can take place in later scholarship. The collection is organized into four sections of related chapters, an organization that avoids some of the inevitable sense of hit and miss in any collection—that is, of heavy coverage in some areas and none in others—and allows the texts in each section to reinforce each other. Part 1, “Classics and Ideology in Children’s Literature,” examines how the so-called golden age of Victorian and Edwardian children’s literature received the similarly golden age of the Greco-Roman past. In the first chapter, Elizabeth Hale shows how classical motifs contribute to the construction in children’s literature of both character and ideal child. Though she begins her discussion with Tom Brown’s Schooldays, her main focus is on the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods, where childhood is shown to be a separate and superior state, nostalgically attuned to a pastoral spirit of nature, and presided over by pagan gods (25). Hale’s discussion includes the puer aeternus in Peter Pan (23); classical encounters with Pan in The Wind in the Willows (23–24) and in [End Page 196] The Secret Garden, via the Pan-like Dickon (24–25); and Peter and Wendy (25). The children in E. Nesbit’s The Enchanted Castle similarly demonstrate that they are superior beings to adults by enjoying the gods’ company (27–28). Of course, as Hale herself acknowledges, Victorian and Edwardian ideas of childhood were very different from those of the actual, original Romans. In the next chapter, Joanna Paul focuses on how Edwardian anxieties and sensibilities inform Nesbit’s work, especially The Story of the Amulet. Time travel in Amulet allows Nesbit to propose Fabian socialism, criticize British shortcomings in social welfare at home and in the empire, and suggest that Britain is truly great and will be a utopia in the future, but also suggest less obvious Edwardian fascinations. She draws attention to Nesbit’s “feel of history” (33) that resonates more strongly with children than didacticism. Young readers “are clearly meant to revel in the exotic excitement” of visiting ancient cities (37). Some of the adult excitement at the time is suggested by Paul’s mention of such Edwardian interests as ancient garden cities, theosophy, origins of Egyptian civilization, research on the potential historicity of Atlantis, and conflicted views of British identity as cultural heir to an invading country, a subject also visited in part 4 of this essay collection. In chapter 3, Katarzyna Marcinak extends classics reception to Polish literature. Classics have always been important in Poland, which still considers itself to be part of the Mediterraneum, a spiritual community exceeding geographical borders (59). The works of two classics professors have made that classicism particularly available to children and have inspired classical reception in later works of Polish children’s literature. The Mythology of Jan Parandowski (1895–1978) links classical past to...

Bernard Shaw the Irish Writer

Book Review| December 01 2016 Bernard Shaw the Irish Writer Clare, David. Bernard Shaw's Irish Outlook. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 207 pages. €60.00. Shaw (2016) 36 (2): 312–315. https://doi.org/10.5325/shaw.36.2.0312 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Bernard Shaw the Irish Writer. Shaw 1 December 2016; 36 (2): 312–315. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/shaw.36.2.0312 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressShaw Search Advanced Search As Bernard Shaw left Dublin and his position at an estate agent's office at the age of twenty to join his mother and sisters in London and promptly become a leading music and theater critic, ardent contributor to the Fabian Society, as well as fierce polemicist and controversial dramatist GBS, critics have understandably focused on his career in England and international impact, rather than on his Irish heritage. His enduring accent and incisive wit marked him as Irish, but his plays were concerned with the social evils of Victorian England and with philosophical reflections, which seemed to render his nationality irrelevant. In Bernard Shaw's Irish Outlook, David Clare reclaims Shaw's Irishness by defining what it meant for Shaw and, through a scrupulous analysis of select plays, shows how Shaw not only was Irish but also wrote “as an Irishman,” in the words of by R. F. Dietrich. Clare pays... You do not currently have access to this content.

GBS as Philanthropist and Social Entrepreneur: Bridging Nineteenth-Century Charity and Twenty-First-Century Social Innovation

ABSTRACT Bernard Shaw is not generally known for philanthropic theories and practices. In his dramatic and political writings, Shaw believed that isolated acts of charity could not address social ills and encourage progress. He sought meaningful social impact through political solutions, highlighted by his involvement in the Fabian Society, but also recognized the social role of private actions of generous visionaries. Shaw's ideas on these private acts were influenced by the rise of early twentieth-century scientific philanthropy and anticipated twenty-first-century social entrepreneurs. His “revolutionists,” depicted in plays such as Man and Superman, Widowers' Houses, Major Barbara, The Devil's Disciple, and Saint Joan, laid the groundwork for modern social activists.