THE SOCIALIST LIBRARY 



PROSPECTUS. 



PR some time it has been felt that there is 

 a deplorable lack in this country of a 

 Socialist literature more exhaustive and sys- 

 tematic than pamphlets or newspaper articles. 

 In every other country where the Socialist 

 movement is vigorous, such a literature exists, 

 and owing to it Socialism has taken a firmer 

 hold upon the intellectual classes, and, 

 amongst Socialists themselves, its theories and 

 aims are better understood than they are here. 

 Comparing the output of Socialist literature 

 in Germany and France with Great Britain, one 

 must be struck with the ephemeral nature of 

 the great bulk of the matter which we publish, 

 and the almost complete absence of any 

 attempts to deal exhaustively with Socialism 

 in its many bearings in economics, history, 

 sociology and ethics. This failure is all the 

 more to be regretted, because just as the special 

 development of British industrialism afforded 

 the basis for much of the constructive work of 

 foreign Socialists half a century ago, so the 

 growth of British democratic institutions and 

 the characteristics of British political methods 

 have a special and direct bearing upon 

 Socialist theories and tactics. 



