Reginald Bassett

Reginald Bassett (1901 - 1962) was an English historian and Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics.

For the American composer and orchestrator, see Reginald Hazeltine Bassett.
Reginald Bassett in 1950

He was educated at Ruskin College, Oxford and New College, Oxford. He was a lecturer under the Extra-Mural Studies Delegacy of the University of Oxford, lecturing mainly in Sussex. From 1945-50 he was a tutor at the London School of Economics for a course designed for students from trade unions. He was lecturer in political science from 1950–53, Reader in Political Science 1953-61 and Professor of Political Science 1961-62.[1]

Bassett was a member of the Independent Labour Party. In 1931 he supported Ramsay MacDonald's decision to a form the National Government with the Conservatives and the Liberals.[1] He later published a detailed history of the crisis of 1931, challenging the left-wing interpretation of it as a plot.

His famous 1948 article on Stanley Baldwin's "confession" of November 1936 challenged the view of Winston Churchill, who claimed in his history of the Second World War that Baldwin had admitted that an election fought on rearmament in 1935 would have been lost. Bassett proved that Baldwin was instead talking about 1933/34 when the public mood favoured disarmament, as revealed by the East Fulham by-election.[2]

Works
  • The Essentials of Parliamentary Democracy (1935).
  • Democracy and Foreign Policy (1952).
  • Nineteen Thirty-one: Political Crisis (1958).
gollark: ...
gollark: > “This stuff is funny!” giggles your niece, squishing her fingers in the goop. “It’s all warm, gluey, and bouncy! Someone should be turning out this stuff for kids to play with, or as sticky putty to stick posters to walls, or whatever. You’ve got, like, an infinite supply of it, so that’s good economics, right?”
gollark: > “No! ElGr cells are a scientific miracle!” cries biologist Jack Ponta, jiggling a beaker full of purplish goop as he waves his arms in exasperation. “These cells have been a breakthrough; not only in testing cures for cancer, but also in understanding how cancer develops and functions! All these years later, these cells keep chugging along, outliving all the others! Who knows, with these cells, we might even one day unlock a path to immortality! Are you going to let bureaucracy get in the way of SCIENCE?”
gollark: > “We thought my poor grandmother’s remains had been buried in accordance with her wishes,” growls Elizabeth’s direct descendant, Catherine Gratwick. “Can’t you let her rest in peace? This is her body that you’re messing with. You can’t just irradiate and poison her; you must ask me first! How would you like it if your family’s remains were exhumed and mutilated? You must never use cells from deceased people without the explicit pre-mortem consent of the patient or their relatives. As for granny - I insist that all remaining samples of her be buried, and that you financially compensate her family for the pain and grief you have caused!”
gollark: > Two generations ago, scientists took a biopsy of a tumor from a cancer patient named Elizabeth Gratwick, who died soon after. Without her knowledge or consent, these cells were preserved in the laboratory and proved to be exceptionally stable in replication. As stable cancer cell lines are highly useful for medical research, “ElGr cells” have been sent to and used by scientists all over the world. However, objections are now being raised by Elizabeth’s descendants.

References
  1. BASSETT, Reginald, 1901-1962, Professor of Political Science, Jisc, retrieved 20 July 2018.
  2. Reginald Bassett, ‘Telling the truth to the people: the myth of the Baldwin "confession"’, Cambridge Journal, II (1948), pp. 84-95.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.