Profile Major Works Resources

George Douglas Howard Cole, 1889-1959.

Photo of

English writer, political activist, and theorist of "guild socialism".

G.D.H. Cole Studied at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was recruited by the Webbs and became an active member of the Fabian Society. However, Cole became gradually disenchanted with their program.  Feeling that their "state socialist" tactics ignored legitimate working class concerns, Cole split from the Fabians and forged the notion of "Guild Socialism" as a compromise between parliamentary activism (the Fabian route) and workers' desire to take control of industry (as advanced by syndicalists and radical unions). 

Guild Socialism envisaged an economy reorganized on the basis of state-chartered but nonetheless self-governing producer organizations of workers -- "guilds".  In a sense, Cole was advocating a program of nationalization, but rather than having the industries guided by State bureaucracies, the organization of industry was to be handled by "National Guilds".   

Guild socialism was at its height in the aftermath of the First World War, when it was regarded as the only avenue to the socialization of means of production which avoided the pitfalls of a Soviet-style totalitarian state and the anarchism of French syndicalism.  R.H. Tawney was particularly impressed by it.

 

  

top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Major Works of G.D.H. Cole

  • "Introduction" 1913, in J.J. Rousseau, Social Contract and discourses, p.vii
  • The World of Labour: a discussion of the present and future of trade unionism, 1913. [1917 ed.,1920 ed. av]
  • Labour in War Time, 1915 [bk, av]
  • Trade Unionism on the Railways: its history and problems, with  R. Page Arnot, 1917 [av]
  • Self-Government in Industry, 1917 [bk], [1920 ed, av]
  • The Meaning of Industrial Freedom, with A.W. Mellor, 1918.
  • "Recent Developments in the British Labor Movement", 1918, AER
  • Introduction to Trade Unionism, 1918 [av]
  • The Payment of Wages, 1918 [av]
  • Labour in the Commonwealth: a book for the younger generation, 1919 [av]
  • Chaos and Order in Industry, 1920 [av]
  • Guild Socialism Restated, 1920 [av]
  • Social Theory, 1920 [bk, av]
  • Unemployment and Industrial Maintenance, 1921
  • The Future of Local Government, 1921 [av]
  • Workshop Organization, 1923 [av]
  • Trade Unionism and Munitions, 1923 [av]
  • Organized labour: an introduction to trade unionism, 1924
  • Robert Owen, 1925
  • The Life of William Cobbett, 1925 [lse]
  • A Short History of the British Working Class Movement, 1789-1927, 1932
  • The Intelligent Man's Guide through World Chaos, 1933 [av]
  • The Intelligent Man's Review of Europe To-Day, with Margaret Cole, 1933 [av]
  • Studies in World Economics, 1934 [av]
  • What Marx Really Meant, 1934
  • Persons and Periods, 1938 [av]
  • Socialism in Evolution, 1938
  • British Trade Unionism To-day: A Survey, 1939
  • Chartist Portraits, 1941
  • Europe, Russia and the Future, 1942
  • The Fabian Society, Past and present, 1942 [lse]
  • A Century of Co-operation, 1944 [av]
  • Scope and method in social and political theory, 1945
  • The Common People, 1746-1938, with R.W. Postgate, 1946
  • The Meaning of Marxism, 1948
  • Essays in Social Theory, 1952.
  • Attempts at General Trade Union, 1829-1834, 1953
  • A History of Socialist Thought, 1956.
HET

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Resources on G.D.H. Cole

 

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All rights reserved, Gonçalo L. Fonseca