Love and friendship: Ethical socialism in britain and australia∗

I am indebted to the Australian Research Council and the managers of the Smuts Memorial Fund, University of Cambridge for funding for this research; to Dr Andrew Bonnell, Dr Nicole McLennan, and Australian Historical Studie's editor and referees for their comments on the article; and to Dr Paul Pickering for information. A version of this paper was presented to the Australasian Modern British History Association, eleventh conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 1–3 February 1999.

Abstract

The restoration of a British context to Australian historical writing has been a significant trend of recent years, but it has so far had little impact on Australian labour history, and even less on the history of radical political thought and organisation. This paper analyses one strand of Australian radical thought—ethical socialism—and seeks to illuminate the manner in which British radical ideas have been received and adapted in the antipodes, shaping radical intellectuals’ conceptions of the social and the self in late‐nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century Australia.

Notes

I am indebted to the Australian Research Council and the managers of the Smuts Memorial Fund, University of Cambridge for funding for this research; to Dr Andrew Bonnell, Dr Nicole McLennan, and Australian Historical Studie's editor and referees for their comments on the article; and to Dr Paul Pickering for information. A version of this paper was presented to the Australasian Modern British History Association, eleventh conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 1–3 February 1999.