The New Statesman

by Adrian Smith

This is the first detailed history of how a fledgeling Fabian weekly, founded in 1913 by Sidney and Beatrice Webb with financial support from George Bernard Shaw, came to play a key role in the growth of the modern Labour Party. Placing the early New Statesman in the context of its eight turbulent decades as the flagship of the left, the book compares the paper's early journalists with those of later generations. The first editor, Clifford Sharp, masterminded a political weekly that by 1920, despite its modest circulation, enjoyed remarkable influence within Whitehall and at Westminster. Reflecting the progressive intelligentsia's disenchantment with the Liberal leadership, especially after the party split in December 1916, the New Statesman had by the end of the First World War become a forum for forward-thinkers at the centre of Labour's policy-making machine. Though a talented editor, Sharp was a deeply flawed character, whose post-war misjudgement, principally his misplaced loyalty