ABSTRACT
It is arguable that of all Hobson’s many writings his two most vigorously polemical pieces are directed against the politics of conservatism. The first of these, ‘The Higher Tactics of Conservatism’ (1905), is a rapid-fire attack on the conservative implications of certain contemporary theories of domestic and international politics; the second, Traffic in Treason (1914), charges that the so-called Curragh Mutiny marked a dangerous reversion in British conservatism, a falling back upon physical force to protect class privilege and thwart popular democracy.
