William A. Robson
William Alexander Robson (14 July 1895 – 12 May 1980)[1] was a British academic who was an early and influential scholar of public administration while serving as a lecturer and professor at the London School of Economics.
[6] With the air conflict during World War I underway, Robson joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1915.
[9] A retrospective review characterized it as "a rather good wartime book" that captured some of the sensations flyers felt when they were aloft.
[6] Famed playwright and polemicist George Bernard Shaw, eager to seem modern with the times, wanted to take an aeroplane flight, and (since he had read Aircraft in War and Peace) chose Robson to give him that experience.
Robson deplored the fate of highly educated women who after becoming a bride found their mental abilities "stagnating in the backwater of marriage."
[14] The idea of starting a serious political journal came to Robson and Kingsley Martin, who also had a teaching position at the LSE at the time.
[11] Figures involved with the founding or funding of The Political Quarterly included Bernard Shaw and John Maynard Keynes.
[4][11] However, Robson's lack of enthusiasm for the Soviet Union, compared to that of some other Fabian socialists, led to a partial split with Shaw during the 1930s.
[2] As an editor, The Times characterised Robson as "stern and terrible in his demand for high standards and good English, however illustrious the contributor, but always patient and dutiful in reading contributions from unknown authors.
[11] Possessed of an international reputation, Robson did consulting work in city planning in countries that included Turkey, Lebanon, Nigeria, and Japan, and his former students became influential in areas such as India, West Africa, and the United States.
[2] He had a difficult relationship with two well-known heads of the Department of Government there, Harold Laski and Michael Oakeshott.
[2] The political scientist Ken Young, who at the start of his career was a research officer with the Greater London Group, has said that Robson always had difficulty in persuading others to adopt an idea or policy.
George W. Jones has written: He was an idealist who sought to use his talents to serve society, and to improve the quality of life, not only materially but also morally.
His great ability was to assemble a huge mass of data, and to analyse order out of complexity, and to argue a coherent case for change.
[7] At that point he retired and became Professor Emeritus, but continued to be active in writing and teaching to the end of his life.
