THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ARNOLD HENRY WHITE, 1848-1925: THE FUSION OF PRE-MODERN POLITICS AND JOURNALISM IN VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN BRITAIN (NAVY, IMPERIALISM, COLONIZATION)

The career of Arnold Henry White (1848-1925) demonstrates the direct flow of politics into British journalism in Late Victorian and Edwardian England. Thus, Admiral Sir John Fisher conspired with White to stimulate public anxiety necessary to secure his ambitious reforms of the Royal Navy in the years immediately preceding the First World War. White focused public attention on the threat of a naval blockade of Britain and escalated the naval armaments race with Germany. Similarly, on social as well as military and political issues, Arnold White reflected and voiced not only his but others, views on Ireland, Jewish immigration in East London, tarriff reform, the Salvation Army, British foreign policy, imperialism, the Boer War, army reform, unemployment, and national efficiency. Through his journalism and his several books, White crusaded for repeal of Liberal laissez-faire dogma and advocated government action to regulate trade, restrict immigration, and promote emigration and colonization, especially in South Africa. As an early opponent of unrestricted immigration, White gained a reputation among Jewish immigrants as being anti-Semitic. In league with the 11th Duke of Bedford, White acted as a political agent in a number of schemes to reform government, organize opposition to Irish Home Rule, and institute efficiency in British administration.