author
Thomas Kirkup
1844–1912
A careful historian of ideas, he wrote some of the best-known English introductions to socialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work aimed to explain a fast-changing political movement clearly, historically, and without unnecessary drama.
1 Audiobook
A history of socialism
by Thomas Kirkup
About the author
Born in 1844 near Wooler in Northumberland, he was the son of a shepherd and spent much of his youth in Kirk Yetholm near Kelso. He began as a pupil-teacher in the village school, later studied at Edinburgh University, and continued his education at several universities on the continent.
He is best remembered for An Inquiry into Socialism (1887), A History of Socialism (first published in 1892), and A Primer of Socialism (1910). His books grew out of his earlier encyclopedia work and were written to give readers a clear, historical account of socialist thought and its development.
Kirkup died on May 23, 1912. Later editors described him as a learned, book-minded scholar, and his writing remained influential enough that A History of Socialism continued to be revised and republished after his death.