A canon of nearly five hundred books, pamphlets, articles, introductions, and edited volumes by Beatrice and Sidney Webb lends some understanding to the lives of two of the most important and prolific British Socialists. But they did not merely write. They gave speeches, conducted demanding research, ran for office (and won), worked on royal commissions, and sustained a happy marriage.

When Beatrice Potter and Sidney Webb met and, after a strained courtship, married, they were dubbed somewhat unfairly the beauty and the beast. They were an unlikely couple: they came from different educational and social backgrounds, and she was one of the beautiful Potter sisters. But by the time they met, each of them was committed to socialism, and together they believed that they could make a considerable contribution to the Socialist cause. Their marriage was one more of commitment than passion, but it became one of great...