The Influence of Romanticism on Nineteenth-Century British Social Work

The Romantic ideology, sometimes allied with liberalism, sometimes with socialism, had a significant role in British social reform during the second part of the nineteenth century. To a greater or lesser degree all movements toward social change came under the Romantic influence. The liberalism of Lord Shaftesbury, the conservatism of Disraeli, the socialism of William Morris?all bear witness to the influence of Romantic thought. More specifically two major social welfare developments?the growth of charity organization and the settlements?owed much of their philosophy to the intrusion of Romantic ideologies. As the forerunners of modern social work practice, they reflected the social philosophies of a significant segment of Victorian reformers. The principal issues of Romantic thought as represented in these organizations are thus significant for the growth of welfare policy. The breadth of the Romantic influence on social policy may be illustrated by the names of a few of the prominent figures and movements most closely connected with the development of the Romantic ideology. Among poets, Coleridge and Southey were forerunners. Among writers and reformers, Carlyle and Ruskin were particularly outspoken and influential. Leaders of organized movements were Maurice, Ludlow, and Kingsley, in Christian socialism; Cardinal Newman, in the Oxford movement; Disraeli, in Young England; Arnold Toynbee, in the university settlements; and William Morris, in the Socialist League. However, the Romantic movement was so much a part of the spirit of the nineteenth century that few writers or reformers were not to some extent within its ranks. Dickens, Wordsworth, Byron, Scott, Shelley, Tennyson, to name but a few, were among the host of Romantic figures of the century. Even John Stuart Mill, heir to the leadership of rationalism and utilitarianism so opposed by the Romantics, was swayed by his contacts with English and Continental Romantics. Romanticism was a reaction against the emphasis on materialism, rationalism, and self-interest which had become increasingly dominant in British life since the end of the eighteenth century. More specifically, the attack on these values was linked, by the middle of the nineteenth century, with the reaction against the social and economic order associated with the triumph of the Industrial Revolution. The Victorian era was marked in the eyes of its critics by the corruption of significant human values. The individual and society had been perverted by absorption in selfish economic gain. Individual satisfactions and social good had not proved to be