ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the combination of Liberal politics, science and commerce that defined the mindset of the Victorian upper middle class to which Lubbock belonged. The model of evolution promoted by Lubbock and the X-Club provided the intellectual basis for Liberalism. A man of universal mind who had strolled into Parliament but was hardly a politician and at all events devoid of political partisanship. The true impression the writer continued is that Sir John Lubbock, banker, savant, Member of Parliament is a country gentleman to whom science has been a relaxation and pursuit, just as classical studies were to a bygone generation of statesmen. Lubbock came to imperialism as a positive liberal movement, arising from the abolition of slavery, with a mission to bring the benefits of English civilization and free trade to all parts of the world.
