Building Cosmopolis: The Political Thought of H.G. Wells

by Partington,John S.

• ISBN13: 9780754633839
• ISBN10: 0754633837
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-04-07
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Building Cosmopolis presents the worldview of Wells as developed between his student days (1884-1887) and his death in 1946. During this time, Wells developed a unique political philosophy, grounded on the one hand in the theory of Ethical Evolution, and on the other in late Victorian socialism. From this basis Wells developed a worldview which rejected class struggle and nationalism and embraced global co-operation for the maintenance of peace and the advancement of the human species in a world society.Following an examination of the development of his political thought from its inception to fruition, Building Cosmopolis argues that Wells's political thoughts rank him alongside David Mitrany as one of the two founders of the functionalist school of international relations, an acknowledgement hitherto denied to Wells by scholars of world-government theory.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. vi
Acknowledgements	p. vii
List of Abbreviations	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Liberal Internationalism, 'Ethical Evolution' and Cosmopolitan Socialism	p. 21
The Death of the Static: H.G. Wells and the Kinetic Utopia	p. 49
From 'The Larger Synthesis' to the League of Free Nations	p. 65
Educational Reform from The Outline of History to the 'Permanent World Encyclopaedia'	p. 87
From the League of Nations to the Functional World State	p. 101
Human Rights and Public Accountability in the Functional World State	p. 126
The Forgotten Cosmopolitan: H.G. Wells and Postwar Transnationalism	p. 149
Postscript: Mind at the End of Its Tether?	p. 179
Bibliography	p. 183
Index	p. 191
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