Martha Beatrice Potter was born in 1858 to wealthy and intelligent
parents. They had nine daughters who were allowed an unusually
liberal education, being able to read widely and discuss their
views. The daughters were loved and admired by their father who
invested them with confidence. Beatrice recalled in later life that
her father was 'the only man I ever knew who genuinely believed
that women were superior to men, and acted as if he did'. Beatrice
grew into an independent and intelligent woman, but she also
suffered endless conflicts between emotion and intellect, and her
desire for independence - rare amongst Victorian women - caused her
great frustration. The diaries record her unrequited passion for
the Radical politician Joseph Chamberlain, which led to great
personal unhappiness but also brought about her involvement with
the poverty-ridden East End of London and her development as a
social investigator. When Beatrice eventually married, she
established a successful partnership with her husband, Sidney Webb.
She became an active member of the Royal Commission on the outmoded
Poor Law and was instrumental in the campaign for the creation of
the welfare state. The couple mixed with prominent politicians,
administrators, academics and writers and the diaries reveal a
varied and lively public life, combining fascinating descriptions
of a rapidly changing world with intimate details of her personal
trials and challenges. Beatrice was born just before the
publication of Darwin's Origin of Species and died two years before
the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and the diaries span a
whole epoch. They begin with Beatrice as an innocent and hopeful
15-year-old and end with a philosophical woman of 85, confronting
death with acceptance, her view of the world still curious, if no
longer full of hope. Beatrice had all the talents needed of a great
diarist. She was intelligent, interested in the world around her
and the lives of other people, well read and connected and
committed to making a difference. Her life was full of variety and
she records her observations with wit and candour. She lived
through and charted the advent of the modern world - from women's
suffrage to two world wars and huge changes in social and moral
attitudes. As a record of social history and for all lovers of
autobiography, this diary is not to be missed. (Kirkus UK)
These diaries present a unique record of the time in which Beatrice
Webb and her husband, Sidney, lived. They were at the centre of
British intellectual and political life for almost 70 years, and
the diaries feature appearances by figures including Churchill,
Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf. Rich in insights and anecdotes
about the people and politics of late-Victorian and early modern
Britain, the diaries reveal Beatrice as the mistress of salon
politics. She devoted herself to the causes that she and Sidney had
at heart - including the founding of the London School of
Economics, trade unionism, local government, the war against
poverty and their books.
General
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