Speaker(s): Professor Michael Cox | There have been many famous Directors of LSE, from Halford Mackinder to Ralph Dahrendorf. But none can lay claim to such fame as LSE’s fourth Director, William Beveridge - generally regarded as the main architect of the Welfare State and the energetic visionary who oversaw a major expansion of LSE from 1919-1937. But though his achievements at LSE were by any measure great, his relations with some of the School’s leading academic figures were never easy, while his attempt to redefine the nature of the social sciences floundered. Why was rethinking the relationship between state and society an easier task for Beveridge than running an ‘unruly School’?

Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. He is author and editor of over twenty books, currently working on a ‘new’ history of LSE. Professor David Stevenson is the Stevenson Professor of International History, Department of International History, LSE. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it.