Dawson, William Harbutt, 1860-1948

William Harbutt Dawson was an authority on Germany, especially on the social reforms in that country; the Liberal government employed him as an investigator at the Board of Trade, 1906, and he contributed to the Labour Exchange Act and the National Insurance Act in that capacity; his book The Evolution of Modern Germany was published in 1908 and reprinted five times before the First World War; he was a member of the British peace delegation at Versailles and argued unsuccessfully that Germany be able to keep its colonies.

From the guide to the Dawson, William Harbutt (1860-1948), 1912 June, (Senate House Library, University of London)

Epithet: author

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000295.0x0001fa

William Harbutt Dawson (1860-1948), publicist. Education: Skipton (Ermysted) School; Private; Berlin University. Work: engaged in social and educational work; early books were written to interpret German life and institutions to the English. Publications: The German Empire, 1867-1914, 2 vols, 1919; Evolution of Modern Germany, 1908; German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle, 1888; Prince Bismarck and State Socialism, 1890; Germany and the Germans, 2 vols, 1894; Social Switzerland, 1897; German Life in Town and Country, 1901; Matthew Arnold and his Relation to the Thought of his Time, 1903; Protection in Germany (A History), 1904; The German Workman: A Study in National Efficiency, 1906; School Doctors in Germany 1906; The Vagrancy Problem, 1910; Social Insurance in Germany, 1883-1911, 1912; Industrial Germany, 1913; Municipal Life and Government in Germany, 1914; What is wrong with Germany; (the causes of the War), 1915; Problems of the Peace, 1917; South Africa: People, Places, and Problems, 1925; Richard Cobden and Foreign Policy, 1926; A History of Germany, 1928; The Future of Empire, 1930; Germany under the Treaty, 1933; Cromwell's Understudy: the Life and Times of General John Lambert, 1938; History of Skipton, 1882; editor of After-War Problems, 1917; has contributed to Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 1922, Encyclopedia Britannica, the Palgrave-Higgs Dictionary of Political Economy, 1926, and the Columbia University Encyclopedia of Social Sciences ; also to various journals.

Reference: Who was who, 1941-50 (London. A&C Black).

From the guide to the W.H. Dawson Papers, 1871 - 1948, (University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department)