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15 volumes. First Edition of the Complete Set which was completed in 1986. Frontispiece illustration of Bagehot in Volume I. 8vo, publisher's original woven dark-blue cloth, the spines lettered in gilt, in the original blue and white printed dustjackets. A very fine set unusually well preserved, the dustjackets handsome and bright with very little evidence of age or use. FIRST EDITION. 'William Bagehot (1826-77), banker, economist, political thinker and commentator, critic and man of letters was Victorian England's most versatile genius. G.M. Young called him the 'greatest' in the sense of the 'truest' Victorian and Woodrow Wilson referred to him as his 'master'. 'Had i command of the culture of men', wrote President Wilson, 'I should wish to raise up for the instruction and stimulation of my nation more than on sane, sagacious, penetrative critic of men and affairs like Walter Bagehot.' In the same essay he added: 'It would be a most agreeable good fortune to introduce Bagehot to men who have not read him. To ask your friend to know Bagehot is like inviting him to seek pleasure.' N. St John-Stevas G.M. Young, an undisputed guide to the Victorian age wrote that 'the breadth and rigour of Bagehot's mind appear on every page he has left, and they were, we know, not less conspicuous in his conversation and the conduct of affairs.there are thousands of people thinking and even speaking Bagehot today, who might be hard put to it to say when exactly he lived and what exactly he did.' 'There is.a satisfying equality about his work. In his twenties he was mature. He did not live long enough for there to be any decline in his powers. At the same time there is no feeling of unfulfilled promise, of still developing gifts cut off to soon. Bagehot gave us all he had to give and it was good. Fashions pass him by and leave him unchallenged. He wrote about books and their authors because he liked doing so and felt he had something to say. His criticism was neither combative nor competitive. He ran a race with no one. There will be plenty eager to walk by his side for many years to come.' W. Haley In 1855, Bagehot founded the National Review with his friend Richard Holt Hutton. In 1861, he became editor-in-chief of The Economist. In the 16 years he served as its editor, Bagehot expanded the reporting of politics by The Economist, and increased its influence among policy-makers. He was widely accepted by the British establishment and was elected to the Athenaeum in 1875. 'Bagehot wrote The English Constitution, a book that explores the nature of the constitution of the United Kingdom, specifically its Parliament and monarchy. It appeared at the same time that Parliament enacted the Reform Act of 1867, requiring Bagehot to write an extended introduction to the second edition which appeared in 1872. He also wrote Physics and Politics (1872), in which he examines how civilisations sustain themselves, arguing that, in their earliest phase, civilisations are very much in opposition to the values of modern liberalism, insofar as they are sustained by conformism and military success but, once they are secured, it is possible for them to mature into systems which allow for greater diversity and freedom. In Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (1873) Bagehot seeks to explain the world of finance and banking. His observations on finance are often cited by central bankers, in particular in the period in wake of the global financial crisis which began in 2007. More specifically, there was particular popularity "Bagehot's Dictum" that in times of crisis of the financial system, central banks should lend freely to solvent depository institutions, yet only against sound collateral and at interest rates high enough to dissuade those borrowers that are not genuinely in need. Seller Inventory # 33416
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