Conference is a part of commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse, one of the leading New Liberal theorist.

Leonard Hobhouse was son of Cornish archdeacon of the Church of England, The Venerable, Reginald Hobhouse. Leonard’s father was educated in Eton and Oxford (Balliol College). Reginals family were prosperous merchants in Bristol during eighteen century and in nineteen connected to the Liberal Party. His mother, Caroline Salusbury Trelawny come from artistic, “adventurous family”. Her father, Sir William Trelawny, who come from famous Cornish family, was a Member of Parliament. Leonard was the youngest child in the family. His sister, Emily, was humanitarian activist and anti-war campaigner.

Leonard Hobohuse was born on 8th of September, 1864, at St. Ive, a village in the middle of Liskeard and Callington, Cornwall. He went to Marlborough College, where he read J.S. Mill, Herbert Spencer and Giuseppe Mazzini’s essays and wrote some articles to the school paper about them. He left Marlborough and went to Oxford (Corpus Christi). During studies he engaged in the Labour Movement and in 1893 published a book entitled Labour Movement which presents his view on trade union. In 1887 he became a tutor at Oxford. Later he wrote The Theory of Konwledge which was effect of his studies on epistemology. In 1897 he joined editorship in Manchester Guardian under C.P. Scott. During his time at the Guardian Hobhouse published another part of his work on evolutionary sociology: Morals in Evolution. In 1905 he become political editor at Tribune and was working as a secretary of the Free Trade Union. During this time he wrote important for his political thought: Democracy and Reaction. In 1911 he published in prestigious edition his work on liberal thought: Liberalism, where he presented his statement on political conception. In this book, as Peter Weiler wrote, he tried to “synthesize political thought of J.S. Mill and T.H. Green”. In 1907 Hobhouse accepted Martin White professorship of Sociology at University of London and became a founder editor of Sociological Review. In 20’s he published several books upon philosophy and sociological topics, such as The Rational Good, The Elements of Social Justice and Social Development. In 1925 Hobhouse was elected Felow of the British Academy. He died this same year in France.