The Bloomsbury Group and Modernity: The Intellectuals' Responses to Politics and Society

Historians have long noted the change in England's social and political life that occurred with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. The Bloomsbury Group began to coalesce during the early years of Edwardian England and responded to the changes that were occurring. Within the response of this collection of writers, artists, critics, political scientists, and economists there existed a shared sensibility and common ethos, which encouraged the group to scrutinize middle-class values and authority and to recognize and champion the needs, desires, and beliefs of the individual in the face of a socioeconomic system that constrained experience as England moved from the death of Queen Victoria to the beginning of the atomic age. Their philosophy influenced a segment of English history as each member, in their own way, sought to realize the civilization of their dreams, constantly fluctuating between the illusion of their ideals and the disillusion of reality. This study on the influential group of writers examines the relationship between intellectuals and the moral compass of society.