John Strachey: An Intellectual Biography

301 Pages·1993·17.56 MB·English

by  Noel W. Thompson

JOHN STRACHEY: AN INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY
Also by Noel Thompson
THE PEOPLE'S SCIENCE: The Popular Political Economy
of Exploitation and Crisis, 1816-34
THE MARKET AND ITS CRITICS: Socialist Political Economy
in Nineteenth-Century Britain
John Strachey
An Intellectual Biography
NOEL THOMPSON
Lecturer in Economic History
University College, Swansea
M
© Noel Thompson 1993
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Preface ix
1 Political Economy and the Labour Party: the
Post-war Period 1
2 Revolution by Reason and the Challenge to
Fabianism, 1925 10
3 The Making of an English Marxist? 1925-29 30
4 From Labour Party to New Party, 1929-31 54
5 The Theory and Practice of Communism, 1931-36 71
6 The Costs of Keeping Faith, 1931-39 102
7 Towards a Popular Front Political Economy, 1936-39 126
8 Marxist or Social Democrat? 1940-44 148
9 The Break with the Party, 1940-42 168
10 Contemporary Capitalism, 1945-56 184
11 Revisionist or Fundamentalist? 1945-56 203
12 Modified Capitalism, Modified Marxism, Modified
Imperialism, 1956-63 226
13 On the Prevention of War, 1945-63 248
Conclusion 266
Select Bibliography 269
Index 279
vii
Acknowledgements
During the course of researching and writing this book I have
incurred considerable debts. To begin with I am indebted to those
who have discussed various Strachey and Strachey-related papers
with me at the History of Economic Thought Conference, Bristol,
1988; the History of Economic Society Conference, Toronto, 1988; a
conference on Alternative Economic Strategies, Gregynog, 1989; and
a conference on J. A. Hobson in Malvern, 1990. More specifically the
work has benefited from the critical comment which different parts
of it have received from Elizabeth Durbin, Michael Freeden, Karel
Williams and Gavin Kitching.
Amongst those who have learnt to live with the project and to
extend an informed tolerance to my lengthy disquisitions upon it,
Nigel Allington, Paul Davies and Andrew Murray deserve a par
ticularly honourable mention. As too do John Saville and Nicholas
Jacobs for their encouragement and support at a critical juncture.
Gratitude is also due to the British Academy for the financial
assistance it provided to support my work on Strachey's personal
papers.
I should also like to record my thanks to the staff of various
libraries but in particular those of the London School of Economics,
University College Swansea, the British Library and the British
Newspaper Library at Colindale.
Finally, and in particular, I would like to thank Elizabeth al Qadhi
whose hospitality and kindness greatly facilitated my perusal of her
father's papers.
NOEL THOMPSON
Llanelli
viii
Preface
John Strachey has been recognised by many commentators as one
of the most important left intellectuals in twentieth-century Britain.
His Revolution by Reason (1925) was a significant contribution to
the early economic literature of liberal socialism and furnished
one of the few, coherent, radical economic strategies advanced
by the British Labour Movement in the 1920s. His expositions
of Marxism-Leninism in the 1930s are generally seen as amongst
the most profoundly influential works to be published in both
Britain and the United States in that period providing what Richard
Crossman referred to as 'a remarkable Marxian Vulgate' for 'the
militant left'.1 Finally his Contemporary Capitalism (1956) The End
of Empire (1959) and On the Prevention of War (1962) represented
an attempt on a grand scale to re-define the principles of British
social democracy in such a way as to make them applicable to the
economic and strategic problems which confronted Britain in the
post-war period.2
Two fine works on John Strachey already exist, that of Hugh
Thomas and the more recent study by Michael Newman.3 Thomas'
biography provides an excellent account of Strachey's life. How
ever, Richard Crossman in his review of the work expressed the
opinion that 'it was a pity that for the sake of this curious life history
the books get pushed so carelessly aside'.4 This is a little harsh but
it is fair to say, as another reviewer of Thomas' work put it, that
Strachey is 'an ideal subject for an essay on political ideas. But not
for a biography.'5
Richard Crossman also expressed the hope that 'some later pro
fessor will give a considered study of what is probably the most
considerable corpus of socialist theory in the history of [the British
Labour Movement]'6 and Michael Newman has certainly gone some
way towards that in his study of Strachey's life and thought. But
the need to meld biography and intellectual history which a 'Lives
of the Left' text demands and the constraints of length undoubt
edly limited the opportunities to expatiate upon many aspects of
Strachey's shifting theoretical position.
Courtesy of Macmillan and my editor this volume has been writ
ten under no such constraints. In consequence I have been able to
IX