First edition of Hobhouse’s first book, an interesting example of his early thought on the Left. Hobhouse was referred to by a contemporary reviewer as a ‘mild radical in labor matters’ (Journal of political economy). His argument for liberalism and trade unions is based on the idea that benevolent capitalism pays in the long run. Taking his cue from evolutionary theory, Hobhouse argues that the man ‘fittest to survive’ in a modern, social society, does so through that society’s institutions, of which the unions are just one example. Hobhouse’s institutional liberalism stops well short of anarchy, which is why he might be called ‘mild’: any government, he argues, even a very bad one, is better than no government at all.