R.H. TAWNEY (1880-1962), an English economic historian, was one of the most influential social critics and reformers of his time. After having studied history at Oxford, and influenced by his Anglicanism, he became a strong proponent of adult education. In 1931, Tawney became a professor of economic history at the London School of Economics, and was a leading expert on capitalism and on the connection between Protestantism and capitalism. In addition, he helped Britain's Labor Party formulate their economic policies in the 1920s and '30s. Tawney was a prolific writer of provocative books, such as The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century (1912) and Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926).
