"A fresh and illuminating study of the Fabian Society's most famous and effective spokesman."--A. M. Gibbs, Macquarie University, Sydney

"Carpenter expertly shows how the largely self-effacing, communitarian Fabians, rather plodding in their research and other methods of reform, found themselves rather uncomfortably joining forces with one of the most remarkable individualists of their day, whose unusual command of the language and often startling use of it on the speaker's platform and the stage persuaded more effectively than any of the less sparkling and less captivating methods of the others."--R. F. Dietrich, series editor

Charles Carpenter provides a new perspective on one of the most puzzling questions faced by Shaw scholars: how to reconcile the artist's individualist leanings with his socialist Fabian ideals. He does so by viewing Shaw as a maverick whose approach was impossible to duplicate and grew out of his unique artistic temperament, his outlook, and his vocation.

Shaw's activities in promoting the Fabians' goals of advancing social democracy were highly distinctive. He effectively used calculated irritation as an attention-getting tactic; he relied on devices that he had formulated as a creative rhetorician, rather than on the academic principles that were second nature to most of his fellow Fabians; and he devised and championed the use of indirect means to "persuade the world to take our ideas into account in reforming itself."