Modernity or Morality? George White, Liberalism and the Nonconformist Conscience in Edwardian England

This article addresses the debate about the character of the Edwardian Liberal party and the degree to which it had modernized its ideas by the outbreak of the First World War. It employs the concept of a ‘crisis of modernity’ to analyse the politics of the provincial businessman and leading Baptist, Sir George White, Liberal M.P. for North-West Norfolk, 1900–12 and chairman of the Nonconformist Members of Parliament, 1907–12. It suggests White’s views were shaped more by his experience of modernity than his sectarian position and that historians have underestimated the ends nonconformists sought from their traditional politics and the extent of their support for welfare reforms.