John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves Atlantic Books, 30

Summary

---

IT was a dead baby lying under a tree in St James's Park that set 17-year-old John Stuart Mill on the radical path. "He carefully unpeeled layers of dirty blankets, " writes Mill's latest biographer Richard Reeves. "Within them lay a newborn, newly killed baby. The previous summer's night had been warm, so those responsible had taken no chances, strangling the infant before discarding it." When Mill reported his sad find, nobody was surprised. "London in 1823 was full of poor families who could not afford another child."

Mill's response was to tramp the streets of working-class London handing out pamphlets on contraception. This resulted in a few days in gaol for "the promotion of obscenity", an incident that his family tried to hush up for fear of damaging his career. It didn't, and Mill went on to become one of 19th century Britain's most dynamic public intellectuals. He was described by one of his contemporary admirers as "a man of extreme sensibility and vital heat in things worth waxing hot about". Reeves's portrayal of Mill the philosopher as man of action is a good one.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves Atlantic Books, 30

There are many who regard Mill as one of the Victorian era's dry- as-dust thinkers. In this biography, Reeves is quick to scotch that view. "In the course of his extraordinary life of action and reflection, " Reev...

See the full content of this document

---