A Study of Hilaire Belloc's The servile state

Abstract

There is little doubt that the most famous of Hilaire Belloc's sociological or political works is The Servile State. This book was first published in September 1912. A second edition was published in September 1913: it contained a nine-page preface in which Belloc discussed certain 'misconceptions' of the book which had been apparent to him in reviews and discussions. A third edition was published in 1927: this contained a further two-page preface, in which some recent developments towards the Servile State were mentioned. I have used the third edition, and all references to The Servile State are indicated by page numbers only. Most of these references are included in the body of my text; references to other books are shown in footnotes. These prefaces were added to the second and third editions, but no changes were made in the text itself (p. vii). The Servile State, has been hailed as 'a book as terse and as dynamic as Rousseau's Social Contract.'Robert Hamilton, Hilaire Belloc (London, 1945), p. 26. In 1940, George Orwell expressed the opinion that 'Belloc, in his book The Servile State, foretold with astonishing accuracy the things that are happening now, 'Notes On The Way", Time And Tide, 6 April 1940, p. 358. In 1944, F A. Hayek considered that The Servile State 'explain[ed] more of what has happened since in Germany than most works written after the event'. The Road to Serfdom (London, 1944), p. 10, ftn. In 1949, Martin J. Hillenbrand thought that 'events have yet to prove his analysis wrong in essentials.'Power and Morals, (New York, 1949), p. 184. In 1957, a group of British Liberals published a book setting forth 'Liberal attitudes in the round', which they called The Unservile State. The Unservile State: Essays in Liberty and Welfare, edited by George Watson (London, 1957).It is true that there is no reference to Belloc in this book, but this very fact is perhaps significant as indicating the extent to which his term has become a commonplace. Compare Geoffrey Ashe's comment: 'That arresting title "The Servile State" is one of the few Catholic contributions to the jargon of English politics. The expression still flourishes after forty years, and its use is not confined to the spokesmen of any one party.' "The Servile State In Fact And Fiction", The Month, July 1950 (New Series, Vol. 4, No. 1), p. 48.