A Journal at War

Abstract

In 1911, Gooch found partial compensation for the loss of his seat in Parliament by being appointed co-editor of a prestigious journal, The Contemporary Review, with which he was to be connected for more than half a century. Founded in 1866, it was a leading political and cultural monthly journal, whose contributors had included W. E. Gladstone, Joseph Mazzini and Walter Bagehot.¹ When Gooch was elected to Parliament in 1906, he was asked by the editor, Sir Percy Bunting, to become a director.² Bunting, a Methodist, was a prominent member of an influential and broadly based group of social reformers and philanthropists close to the Rainbow Circle. Under his editorship, which began in 1882, the review flourished and acquired a notable position in politics and culture. The journal specialised in social reform and religious questions. But it also emphasised international problems, every month carrying a substantial foreign affairs analysis by the redoubtable Dr E. J. Dillon, as well as opening its columns to distinguished foreign contributors, for instance from Germany, with which Bunting attempted to promote better relations. Besides Gooch, a nephew of Lady Bunting, the Rev. Dr Scott Lidgett, a leading Methodist divine as well as a member of the London County Council, also took a considerable interest in the journal.³