A Plan for Plenty: The International Thought of Barbara Wootton

For Barbara Wootton, international thought was a medium to explore her concerns for social and economic justice, concerns which she argued had to be viewed through a lens attuned to both global and domestic forces. Writing briefing papers and pamphlets for both the British political group Federal Union and the think tank Chatham House, Wootton proposed practical solutions and policies for a wide, non-academic readership, and opposed ‘abstract thinking’ on principle. Her federalist proposals of the 1940s fused liberal and socialist analyses and form part of the intellectual history of European integration and welfarism. Implicitly, Wootton argued for Britain to sever relations with its imperial possessions in a ‘turn to Europe.’ However, she did so without analyzing how the injustices and inequalities of empire could be undone. This unresolved tension in her thought makes her newly relevant in an era of imperial nostalgia and profound disillusionment with the European project.