08 September 1864

Birth of L.T. Hobhouse, Liberal philosopher associated with the New Liberalism of the 1900s

Birth of Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse near Liskeard in Cornwall. One of the leading social theorists of his generation, Hobhouse was the thinker most associated (along with J A Hobson) with the ideas of ‘New Liberalism’ in the 1900s. New Liberals developed ideas on the enabling purposes of the state to expand liberty and posited the theory of positive liberty, recognising that the lack of economic opportunity, education or access to health care, was as threatening to liberty as the denial of traditional the Liberal rights of political and religious freedoms.