Amid the current political disputes regarding the character of the Victorian period in England - whether economic individualism or social responsibility were the major characteristics of the time - this fine, scholarly study, first published in 1945, is again available to provide a benchmark by which to assess the political claims. The scholarly and political value of the work is clear; it is deeply researched, clearly written, and establishes guidelines for contemporary social action and thought.In his perceptive introduction to this edition, Pomper points to lessons the book provides for contemporary politics: the values of careful documentation and research that characterized the work and enhanced the results of Fabianism; the need for a skeptical optimism in social thought; and an understanding of the contrasting fate of socialism in Great Britain and the United States.