Walter Bagehot: life and legacy
On 3 February 2026, to mark the bicentenary of Bagehot’s birth, the Langport & District History Society published a book called Walter Bagehot: life and legacy.
This book is presented in three sections: Bagehot’s life, Bagehot’s work and Bagehot’s commemoration. This novel approach allows the authors to illustrate how his experience informed and enriched his work. Living in Bagehot’s home town, the authors, from the Langport & District History Society, have brought a unique perspective to their account, which draws on a rich variety of source material, both published and unpublished. Finally, they describe how Bagehot’s legacy has been preserved and his life commemorated locally, nationally and internationally. Read more here.
Publication details and how to obtain a copy are available here.
Other books and articles about Bagehot
The following books and articles about Bagehot are arranged in order of their publication date, with the most recent first. For Bagehot’s own works, see here.
James Grant. Bagehot: the life and times of the greatest Victorian. W Norton & Co, New York, 2019.
Roger Kimball. “The age of discussion: on Walter Bagehot and the progress of civilisation”. New Criterion, vol 31 Jan 2013, p10. Available online.
Vincent Bignon et al. “Bagehot for beginners: the making of lender-of-last-resort operations in the mid-nineteenth century”. Economic History Review, vol 65 no. 2, May 2012, pp580-608.
Frank Prochaska. “The view from Albion: Bagehot and the American Constitution”. History Today, Feb 2010, pp35-41.
Antoine Martin. “Reconciling Bagehot and the Fed’s response to September 11”. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, vol. 41, No. 2–3, Mar–Apr 2009, pp397-415.
David Clinton. Tocqueville, Lieber, and Bagehot: Liberalism confronts the world. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Roger Kimball. “The greatest Victorian: on Walter Bagehot”. New Criterion, vol 17, Oct 1998, p23. Available online.
Gordon Lee. A voice of sanity: Walter Bagehot. The Economist, London, 1996.
Ruth Dudley Edwards. The pursuit of reason: The Economist 1843-1993. Hamish Hamilton, London, 1993.
Ruth Dudley Edwards. The best of Bagehot. Hamish Hamilton, London, 1993.
Robert Patterson. “Bagehot on banking”. Business Quarterly, vol 56, no 2, Autumn 1991, p81.
Michael Robbins. “Walter Bagehot at Wimbledon”. Wimbledon Society Newsletter, Dec 1988, pp7-8 [Bagehot’s Wimbledon house, The Poplars] Available online.
Norman St. John-Stevas. The omnipresence of Walter Bagehot. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987. [Romanes Lecture 1986-7, Oxford University, 3 March 1987]
Martha Westwater. The Wilson sisters: a biographical study of upper middle-class Victorian Life. Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio, 1984. [an examination of Bagehot’s wife’s celebrated family, based on her diaries]
John D. Fair. “Walter Bagehot, royal mediation, and the modern British constitution, 1869-1931″. Historian, vol 43, Nov 1980, pp.36-54.
Hugh Brogan. “America and Walter Bagehot”. Journal of American Studies, vol. 11, no. 3 (Dec. 1977), pp. 335-356.
- A. M. Westwater. “ Walter Bagehot: a reassessment”. Antioch Review, vol. 35, no. 1 (Winter 1977), pp. 39-49.
- Hirsch. “The Bagehot problem”. Manchester School, vol 45 no.3, Sept 1977 pp241-257.
Robert H. Tener. “Walter Bagehot: some new attributions”. Studies in Bibliography, vol. 29 (1976), pp. 346-359.
Harry R. Sullivan. Walter Bagehot. Twayne, 1975.
G Ionescu. “The shrinking world of Bagehot” Government & Opposition vol 10 no 1 Jan 1975, pp1-11.
- C. Wheare. Walter Bagehot: lecture on a master mind.OUP, Oxford, 1974. [reprinted from Proceedings of the British Academy vol LX, 1974]
Martha Westwater. Walter Bagehot: the conservatism of a Victorian mind. PhD thesis, Dalhousie University, 1974.
- H. Sisson. The case of Walter Bagehot. Faber & Faber, 1972.
Norman St. John-Stevas. Walter Bagehot. (Writers and their work, No. 160). Longmans, Green & Co, British Council & National Book League, 1963.
Mohammed Abdul-Muizz Nasr. Walter Bagehot: a study in Victorian ideas. Alexandria University Press, 1959.
Norman St. John-Stevas. Walter Bagehot: a study of his life and thought. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1959.
Alastair Buchan. The spare Chancellor: the life of Walter Bagehot. Chatto & Windus, 1959.
Alastair Buchan. “Walter Bagehot”. History Today, Nov 1954, pp.764-70.
Asa Briggs. “Trollope, Bagehot and the English constitution”, ch4 of Victorian People, 1954.
John R. Y. McRae. Walter Bagehot as a literary critic. University of Toronto thesis, 1952. [Available online: Walter Bagehot as a literary critic]
Byron Dexter. “Bagehot and the fresh eye”. Foreign Affairs, vol. 24, no. 1, Oct. 1945, pp. 108-118.
The Economist 1843-1943: a centenary volume. OUP, London, 1943.
William Irvine. Walter Bagehot. Longmans, Green & Co, 1939.
Mrs. Russell Barrington (editor). The love-letters of Walter Bagehot and Eliza Wilson. Faber & Faber, 1933.
Mrs Russell Barrington. The servant of all. 2 vols, Longmans, Green, London, 1927. [biography of her father, James Wilson, Bagehot’s father-in-law]
George Sampson. “Walter Bagehot (1826-1926)”. Bookman, Feb 1926, vol 69 no. 413, pp. 243-6.
Sir J. A. R. Marriott. “Walter Bagehot”. Fortnightly Review, Feb 1926, pp. 263-72.
- M. Keynes. “The works of Bagehot”. Economic Journal, vol. 25, No. 99, Sep. 1915, pp. 369-375. [review of Barrington, The Works and Life of Walter Bagehot]
Mrs Russell Barrington. Works and Life of Walter Bagehot. 10 vols, Longmans, Green, London, 1915: vols 1-9: Works, vol 10: Life. (Available online: Life of Walter Bagehot)
- C. Kolbe. “Walter Bagehot: an appreciation”. Irish Monthly, vol. 36, No. 419 (May 1908), pp. 282-287.