Distributist Perspectives is a collection of essays by leading thinkers of the school of English Distributists that in the 1920s and 1930s articulated a humane vision of social and economic life based upon the Social Doctrine of the Church. Subtitled “Essays on the Economics of Justice and Charity,” and including essays by Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton, George Maxwell, Harold Robbins, Cdr. Herbert Shove, H. J. Massingham, and Eric Gill, this first collection of Distributist writings serves as an introduction to the depth and coherence of the Distributist position on such essential topics as the nature of work, the role of tradition, the dangers of industrialism, and the importance to the family and the State of the widespread distribution of ownership of productive property. Volume I of the series offers a rare glimpse through true, primary source material, of the seriousness and persuasiveness of the critique of modernity by some of the finest English Catholic minds of last century.
This first volume of Distributist Perspectives also offers a newly edited edition of the Distributist Manifesto, written by Arthur J. Penty for the Distributist League in 1937.
Reclaiming the Tradition: Introduction to the Distributist Perspectives Series —The Publishers
Averting Self-Destruction: A Twenty-First Century Appraisal of Distributism —Dr. Thomas H. Naylor
Introduction —Fr. Lawrence C. Smith
I. On Knowing the Past —Hilaire Belloc
II. The Truth About Work —George Maxwell
III. On Organisation and Efficiency —G.K. Chesterton
IV. The Growth of Industrialism —Cdr. Herbert Shove
Illustrations
V. The Buttress of Freedom —Harold Robbins
VI. Painting and the Public —Eric Gill
VII. And His Mental Exodus —Harold J. Massingham
VIII. Distributism: A Manifesto —Arthur J. Penty
i. Economic Principles
ii. Historical Observations
iii. Conclusion: Practical Applications
About the Authors
