Graham Wallas and the great society

the long version

There is a strange paradox in Graham Wallas' historical reputation. Although remembered as one of the inner group who created Fabian socialism and "behavioral" political science, Wallas is usually now mentioned only briefly, as his theories have been deemed outdated and passe. This book sets out to prove that Wallas was more appalled and frightened by the anti-intellectualism of the twentieth century than by the naive over-intellectualism of the nineteenth. Attacking unreal assumptions about the role of reason, he sought not to deny men the capacity to think, but to show them how to do so more clearly in order to improve the human condition. Contrary to recent popular opinion that he was a socialist critic of intellectualism, the author demonstrates that Wallas did, in fact, spend the greater part of his career trying to advance the role of reason in society. - Jacket flap.