Originally published in 1968, English Prisons Under Local Government gives a detailed account of the evolution of the English Prison System from the common gaol and the house of correction of the sixteenth century down to the statutory changes of the twentieth century, and survey the successive efforts at reform of John Howard and Elizabeth Fry, Jeremy Bentham and James Neild, Sir T. Fowell Buxton and J. J.Gurney. The origin and development of the cellular system, the treadwheel and the crank, the penal dietary and the 'system of progressive stages' all come under review, together with the administrative changes made by Sir Edmund Du Cane and Sir Evelyn Ruggles, and the reforms during the first part of the 20th century.

Originally published in 1963, this book examines the English Local Government, and more specifically, the Manor and the Parish, considering the various exemptions, immunities and franchises which enabled the inhabitants of particular localities to exclude the authority of the county at large, or that of one or other of its officers, and thereby enjoy, within their own favoured areas, some peculiar forms of self-government. The book includes chapters on the city and borough of Westminster, the boroughs of Wales, administration by municipal democracies and the municipal revolution.

Originally published in 1963, this volume is devoted to an analysis of the organisation of the Commissioners of Sewers, the Incorporated Guardians of the Poor, the Turnpike Trusts and the Improvement Commissioners, and depicts the important development of these bodies during the eighteenth century. By examining the constitutional features of these statutory authorities Mr. & Mrs. Webb support their main contention that here are to be found the beginnings of most of the Local Government services of the present day. But to most readers the chief interest of this volume will lie in the last two chapters, which analyse the whole development of English Local Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations Act. This description of how the 'Old Principles' between 1689 and 1835 were gradually superseded by the 'New Principles' affords a convenient summary of the first four volumes.

Originally published in 1963, this volume is devoted to an analysis of the organisation of the Commissioners of Sewers, the Incorporated Guardians of the Poor, the Turnpike Trusts and the Improvement Commissioners, and depicts the important development of these bodies during the eighteenth century. By examining the constitutional features of these statutory authorities Mr. & Mrs. Webb support their main contention that here are to be found the beginnings of most of the Local Government services of the present day. But to most readers the chief interest of this volume will lie in the last two chapters, which analyse the whole development of English Local Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations Act. This description of how the 'Old Principles' between 1689 and 1835 were gradually superseded by the 'New Principles' affords a convenient summary of the first four volumes.

In Methods of Social Study Sidney and Beatrice Webb describe in detail how they conducted their investigations into social history and institutions - from the collection, recording and classification of the data (both documentary and oral), through the processes of hypothesis and analysis, down to the preparation of the final report. The Webbs were in many respects pioneers, and what they achieved and the way in which they achieved it are of an importance that has been increasingly recognised as the passage of times gives us perspective. Their constant concern was to ensure that their work would be 'scientific'. They stress the need in scientific research for complete objectivity, to be achieved in their case by keeping their historical and sociological studies wholly separate from their political writings. Because the first drafts for the book were made by Beatrice in 1921 and the final text was written by Sidney in 1931/2, one can also see expressed here, more clearly than elsewhere, the different temperaments of the two collaborators.

My Apprenticeship has long been cited as an important and fascinating source for students of social attitudes and conditions in late Victorian Britain, and this new paperback edition makes it once more generally available. Beatrice Webb, the eighth of the nine daughters of the railway magnate Richard Potter, was an exceptionally able person, with a zest for observation, a knack for pointed comment, and a habit of self-examination - all of which gifts she put to good account in the private diary she kept all her life and in this brilliant volume of autobiography which she based on that diary. It tells the story of a craft and a creed, of a withdrawn but talented girl, growing up in a prosperous household, who turned to social investigation and social reform, moving between the two starkly contrasted worlds of West End smart society and East End squalor. She served a hard apprenticeship, as a woman as well as a professional worker, and in a new introduction to this edition Norman MacKenzie describes the severe personal stresses which lay behind her life of dedication to social improvement, particularly her frustrated passion for Joseph Chamberlain and the troubled courtship which preceded her marriage to Sidney Webb. This volume ends on the eve of that marriage, when she was about to begin her famous and astonishingly productive collaboration with her husband. As historians, publicists and Fabian politicians the Webbs were pioneers of the modern age. The ensuring volume, which chronicles their mature career and was appropriately titled Our Partnership, is also published by the Cambridge University Press in collaboration with the London School of Economics and Political Science.

This early work by Beatrice and Sidney Webb was originally published in 1935 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? - Vol. I' is a work that details the social structure and principles of the USSR in the early part of the 20th century. Beatrice Potter Webb was born in Gloucester, England in 1858. Both her mother and brother died early in her childhood leaving her to be raised by her father, Richard Potter. He was a successful businessman with large railroad interests and many influential friends in politics and industry whose company the young Beatrice would become accustomed to. Upon reaching adulthood, Potter moved to London and helped her cousin, Charles, a social reformer, research his book The Life and Labour of the People in London. It was during this time that she was introduced to Sidney James Webb, who later became her husband and collaborator. The Webb's, together, wrote eleven volumes of work which arguably shaped the way subsequent scholars thought about sociology. They also collaborated on more than 100 books and articles on the conditions of factory workers, and the economic history of Britain, among other subjects.