A leading figure of the British and Indian intellectual stage from the 1880s, Annie Besant (1847–1933) is chiefly remembered for her numerous and somewhat diverging commitments. This article seeks to account for her shift from socialism to theosophy by focusing on the latter as a system of thought and on the philosophical basis of her critique of capitalism. It is argued that the case for the common ownership of means of production that she makes throughout her socialist writings both results from her secularism and explains her eventual drift away from it. In an attempt to promote equality through democratic and pragmatic methods, Besant claimed to predicate her enterprise on the laws of evolution rather than on utopian schemes or revolutionary action. It is shown how this approach drew on philosophies of history: collectivism was deemed the necessary outcome of economic changes and the next stage of industrialization. It is also shown how Besant’s brand of socialism rested on a faith in progress, rather than on scientific reasoning. A secularized theology – her plea for socialism, it appears – was at odds with the philosophical foundations of democracy that she advocated throughout her life.
...More
Article
Jürgen Kocka;
(2020)
Industrialisierung oder Kapitalismus: Alternative Zentralbegriffe (Industrialization or Capitalism: Competing Concepts)
(/isis/citation/CBB795022060/)
Book
Ivey, Paul Eli;
(2013)
Radiance from Halcyon: A Utopian Experiment in Religion and Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001320944/)
Book
Lubelsky, Isaac;
Lotan, Yael;
(2012)
Celestial India: Madame Blavatsky and the Birth of Indian Nationalism
(/isis/citation/CBB001201974/)
Article
Mischa Suter;
(2017)
Debt and Its Attachments: Collateral as an Object of Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Liberalism
(/isis/citation/CBB850632526/)
Article
Eduard J. Alvarez-Palau;
Alfonso Díez-Minguela;
Jordi Martí-Henneberg;
(2021)
Railroad Integration and Uneven Development on the European Periphery, 1870–1910
(/isis/citation/CBB567944359/)
Book
Magee, Gary Bryan;
Thompson, Andrew S;
(2010)
Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c.1850--1914
(/isis/citation/CBB001421568/)
Article
Garland E. Allen;
(2017)
Mendelism and the Promise of A New Agriculture, 1900-1945
(/isis/citation/CBB500275953/)
Book
Healey, Judith Koll;
(2013)
Frederick Weyerhaeuser and the American West
(/isis/citation/CBB001420320/)
Thesis
Casey Primel;
(2016)
Calculating Futures: Debt, Markets, and the Science of Prices in Colonial Egypt, 1882-1912
(/isis/citation/CBB658107916/)
Article
Pilar Piqué;
(2021)
Ernst Cassirer’s Philosophy of Culture: An Economic Assessment of Scope and Limitations
(/isis/citation/CBB578979221/)
Article
Burt, William D.;
(Spring-Summer 2016)
Gabriel Kolko Revisited
(/isis/citation/CBB275675911/)
Book
Rosicka, Janina Clark;
Andres, Charles Michael;
(2001)
Economic Transition in Historical Perspective: Lessons from the History of Economics
(/isis/citation/CBB000101780/)
Article
Matthew Stanley;
(2021)
No slaves to words: S. P. Thompson's theory of history
(/isis/citation/CBB681886550/)
Article
Carmona, Juan;
Simpson, James;
(2012)
Explaining Contract Choice: Vertical Coordination, Sharecropping, and Wine in Europe, 1850---1950
(/isis/citation/CBB001320068/)
Article
Julia Fein;
(2018)
“Scientific Crude” for Currency: Prospecting for Specimens in Stalin’s Siberia
(/isis/citation/CBB630306692/)
Article
Williams, Joyce E.;
Maclean, Vicky M.;
(2012)
In Search of the Kingdom: The Social Gospel, Settlement Sociology, and the Science of Reform in America's Progressive Era
(/isis/citation/CBB001211211/)
Article
William H, Jr. Sewell;
(2020)
The Cultural History of Capitalism in France (With a Chicago touch)
(/isis/citation/CBB282715611/)
Book
Leonardo Anatrini;
Marco Ciardi;
(2020)
La scienza impossibile: Percorsi dell'alchimia in Francia tra Ottocento e Novecento
(/isis/citation/CBB111971964/)
Book
Naomi Beck;
(2018)
Hayek and the Evolution of Capitalism
(/isis/citation/CBB470317386/)
Article
Cooper, Timothy;
(2011)
Peter Lund Simmonds and the Political Ecology of Waste Utilization in Victorian Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB001230685/)
Be the first to comment!