Bagehot, Walter (redirected from Walter Bagehot)

Bagehot, Walter (băj`ət), 1826–77, English social scientist. After working in his father's banking firm, he edited (1860–77) the Economist (which had been founded by his father-in-law) and helped establish its high reputation as a financial journal. From these activities came his noted study of the English banking system, Lombard Street (1873). Bagehot's classic English Constitution (1864) distinguished between the effective institutions of government and those, like the House of Lords, that had entered decay. His other important books include Literary Studies (1879) and Economic Studies (1880). In Physics and Politics (1875) he made a pioneer analysis of the interrelationship between the natural and the social sciences. He believed that investments expanded or contracted according to the mood of the market. Bagehot was also a noted literary critic of his day.

Bibliography

See his collected works (10 vol., 1915); biography by W. Irvine (1939, repr. 1970); studies by A. Buchan (1960) and N. St. John-Stervas (1963).

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Bagehot, Walter

Walter Bagehot, mezzotint by Norman Hirst, after a photograph.

(credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.)

(born Feb. 3, 1826, Langport, Somerset, Eng.—died March 24, 1877, Langport) English economist, political analyst, and journalist. While working in his uncle's bank, Bagehot wrote literary essays and economic articles that led to his involvement with The Economist. As its editor from 1860, he helped make it one of the leading business and political journals in the world. His classic The English Constitution (1867) describes how the British system of government really operates behind its facade. His other works include Physics and Politics (1872), one of the earliest attempts to apply the concept of evolution to societies, and Lombard Street (1873), a study of banking methods. His literary essays have been continually republished.