Ernest Belfort Bax
Ernest Belfort Bax | |
---|---|
Born | Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, UK | 23 July 1854
Died | 26 November 1926 | (aged 72)
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Barrister |
Known for | Men's rights, Socialism |
Notable work | The Legal Subjection of Men (1896) |
Ernest Belfort Bax (/bæks/; 23 July 1854 – 26 November 1926) was an English barrister, journalist, philosopher, men's rights advocate, socialist, and historian.
Biography
Ernest Belfort Bax was born on 23 July 1854, in
He was privately educated by tutors between the years 1864–1875, and influenced by
In his youth Bax had an interest in music and could play the piano, and at the age of 21 (1875) he went to Germany to study music. He visited there again in 1880 as Berlin correspondent of The Standard. It was then that he met with
Studies in philosophy
In 1880 at the age of 26, Bax began studying philosophy in Germany, beginning with Kant and Hegel. In 1883 he produced an English translation of Kant's
Later philosophical works by Bax include The Problem of Reality (1892), The Roots of Reality: Being Suggestions for a Philosophical Reconstruction (1907), Problems of Men, Mind and Morals (1912), and The Real, The Rational, and The Alogical (1920).[4][5][6]
Men's rights advocacy
Bax was a passionate advocate for the social and
In 1896, he wrote The Legal Subjection of Men[9] whose title is a play on John Stuart Mill's 1869 essay "The Subjection of Women." In the volume, Bax draws on his extensive experience as a barrister to demonstrate the numerous ways in which the legal code favoured women to the detriment of men and boys. Chapters in the book include 'Matrimonial Privileges of Women', 'Non-Matrimonial Privileges of Women', 'The Actual Exercise of Women's Sex Privileges', and 'A Sex Noblesse'.[9]
Bax was an active antifeminist since, according to him, feminism was failing to address inequities for both sexes evenly. According to Bax, the "anti-man crusades" of his day were responsible for anti-man laws being both preserved from the old legal canon, and for new laws being passed that were also anti-male and sexist.[9] Bax wrote many articles in The New Age and elsewhere about English laws partial to women against men, and women's privileged position before the law, and expressed his view that women's suffrage would unfairly tip the balance of power to women.[10] In 1913 he published a book, The Fraud of Feminism,[11] detailing feminism's adverse effects.
Bax's concern for
"The highest development of modern capitalism, as exemplified in the English-speaking countries, has placed man to all intents and purposes, legally under the heel of woman. So far as the relations of the sexes are concerned, it would be the task of Socialism to emancipate man from this position, if sex-equality be the goal aimed at. The first step on the road towards such equality would necessarily consist in the abolition of modern female privilege."[9]: 63
Socialism
Bax was first introduced to socialism while studying
Bax moved to
Almost throughout his life, he saw economic conditions as ripe for socialism, but felt this progress was delayed by a lack of education of the
Initially very anti-nationalist, Bax came to support the British in World War I, but by this point he was concentrating on his career as a barrister and did little political work.[12]
Historian
As well as his contributions to philosophy, men's rights, and socialism, Bax published several in depth historical studies of individuals, and cultures. He records in his Reminiscences that he always felt, from childhood on, the need of an intelligible doctrine of history.[4]
Among his historical works are: Jean-Paul Marat: The People's Friend (1879), German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages (1894), The Social Side of the Reformation in Germany (1894), The Peasants' War in Germany (1899), The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists (1903), The Last Episode of the French Revolution (1911), and German Culture Past and Present (1913).
Works
He wrote the following books on various subjects:
- Jean-Paul Marat: A Historico-Biographical Sketch (1882)
- A Handbook of the History of Philosophy (1886)
- A Short Account of the Commune of Paris of 1871, with Victor Dave & William Morris (1886)
- Religion of Socialism (1886)
- The Story of The French Revolution (1890)
- Outlooks From a New Standpoint (1891)
- The Problem of Reality (1893)
- The Ethics of Socialism (1893)
- German Society at the Close of The Middle Ages (1894)
- A Short History of The Paris Commune (1894)
- Socialism; Its Growth and Outcome, with William Morris (1894)
- The Legal Subjection of Men (1896 with Twentieth Century Press) with an unnamed Irish barrister, (republished in 1908 with New Age Press).
- The Peasants War in Germany (1899)
- Jean-Paul Marat: The People's Friend (1901)
- The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists (1900)
- A New Catechism of Socialism, with Harry Quelch (1903)
- Essays in Socialism, New and Old (1906)
- The Roots of Reality (1908)
- The Last Episode of the French Revolution: Being a History of Gracchus Babeuf and the Conspiracy of the Equals (1911)
- Problems of Men, Mind, and Morals (1912)
- The Fraud of Feminism (1913)
- Reminiscences and Reflexions of a mid and late Victorian (1918)
- German Culture Past and Present (1915)
References
- ^ Bax: A Composer and his time, Lewis Foreman, Scolar Press, 1983, pp. 1, 9
- ^ Ernest Belfort Bax (1854-1926), Socialist Writer, John Cresswell, in Friends of West Norwood Cemetery newsletter no. 31, Jan. 1998, pp. 11-13
- OCLC 3645684.
- ^ OCLC 942117666.
- ^ ISBN 9780415244190.
- ISBN 9781843710967.
- OCLC 2342251.
- ^ Bax, E. Belfort (2014). Wright, Peter (ed.). Ernest Belfort Bax: collected essays, volume 1. Collected Works. Houston, Texas: Zeta Press.
- ^ OCLC 875136389.
- Reprinted as Bax, E. Belfort (2015). The legal subjection of men (classic reprint). London: Forgotten Books. ISBN 9781330657508.
- Reprinted as Bax, E. Belfort (2015). The legal subjection of men (classic reprint). London: Forgotten Books.
- ^ Bax, E. Belfort (8 August 1908). "Mr. Belfort Bax Replies to his Feminist Critics". The New Age. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- OCLC 271179371.
- ISBN 9781850436010.
External links
- Ernest Belfort Bax: Father of the Men's Movement
- Archive of Bax's work on Marxists.org
- Works by Ernest Belfort Bax at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Ernest Belfort Bax at Internet Archive
- Works by Ernest Belfort Bax at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- The Legal Subjection of Men, 1908 antithesis of John Stuart Mill's 1869 The Subjection of Women.
- Fraud of Feminism, full 1913 text online
- Article on Bax at Spartacus Educational