Barbara Wootton (1897-1988) was a leading social scientist, magistrate, academic and public servant, a life peer and the only woman Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords. The author of 15 books, mostly on economic and social issues, she was a member of government committees and four Royal Commissions, a BBC governor, university professor, an honorary alumna of 13 universities and a Companion of Honour. Most of these writings, spanning 59 years and drawing on considerable academic and practical experience at home and abroad, are relevant today. Wootton analyzes many problems in criminology and law, social welfare and the social sciences, wage determination and income policies, arguing throughout for equality, a rational approach generally and the application of scientific method to problems of the material environment. An iconoclast, Wootton's intellectual scepticism is always leavened by insistence on being constructive. Her lifelong commitment to an egalitarian socialism emerges, accompanied by deep moral and social concern and a hatred of all injustices, hypocrisy and jargon.
This volume gives a portrait of Barbara Wootton's beliefs and hopes, with discussion ranging over the creation of the universe, personal immortality, the existence of a god, foundations of morality, the taking of life, and social, racial and sexual equality and Wootton tracing the roots of her socialism to a childhood class heirarchy incident. Other subjects on which she discourses include obligations between citizen and state, problems facing universities and her own professorial experience, war and her wartime views on possible European federation, science and democracy, divorce and marriage laws, particular inequalities faced by women, reform of the House of Lords, the future of the social sciences, and euthenasia. Philip Bean is also the editor of the Festschrift to Barbara Wootton entitled "Barbara Wootton: Social Services and Public Policy. Essays in Her Honour".
- ISBN10 0333566785
- ISBN13 9780333566787
- Publish Date 17 November 1992
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 14 June 2005
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 224
- Language English