Civic Communication in Britain

Abstract

This article examines a journal initially known as London and subsequently the Municipal Journal which was first published in the 1890s. It is argued that this publication deserves closer scrutiny by historians interested in urban progressivism over the approximate period 1890-1910. As the foremost journal for diffusing ideas about the management of cities in this era it offers important insights regarding the successes and failures of the Progressive project in both the British capital and the provincial centers. It is argued that the journal played two important roles in this period. The first was to defend the Progressive agenda from Conservative (Moderate) attack, and the second was to play the role as the "Hansard of local government." The impression left to the historian is that Progressivism as a movement contained internal contradictions which contributed to its demise by 1914.