LASK Harold Joseph (Laski Harold Joseph)

(1893-1950)
Born June 30, 1893 in Manchester, the second son of Nathan and Sarah Lasky. He graduated from the University of Oxford.
In 1911 he married Frieda Lasky Kerry. In the same year he started his academic career at New College, Oxford University, where he became a member of the Fabian Society, British socialist organization. In 1914, receiving his doctorate, went from England to Canada, lectured on history at the University of Makgillskom. In 1916-1920 he taught at Harvard University, . at the same time became a close friend of prominent American lawyers, . U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Professor of Law at Harvard, Felix Frankfurter, . later also became a member of the Supreme Court,
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In 1920, Laski returned to England and worked at the London School of Economics. From 1925 until his death March 24, 1950 in London, he was a professor of political science at the LSE.

Laski was an extremely prolific scholar, has published about 30 books and hundreds of popular articles and pamphlets. Several books, . written during his teaching experience in America - the basis of sovereignty (1921), . Authorities in the modern state (1919), . Study of the problem of sovereignty (1917), . - He outlined pluralistic doctrine jurist Frederic William Maitland and the priest of the Anglican Church John Nevila Figgis and sharply criticized the idea of 'pervasive' state,
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After his return to England Lasky published labor policy Grammar (1925). In this book and other writings 1920 - the beginning of 1930 Laski proved himself as one of the leading theoreticians TN. 'democratic socialism'. This is a non-Marxist doctrine called for the transformation of society, not by revolution, but through moral self-rights and reconciliation of classes during the gradual social reforms. In his book Freedom in the modern state (1930) Laski defended the right of individuals to freedom of thought and expression.

In 1930 Laski became more pessimistic about the possibilities of socialism by democratic means. In the books of Democracy in Crisis (1933) and The State in Theory and Practice (1935) he argued that even in England, the violence would accompany the transition from capitalism to socialism.

During the Second World War, Laski argued that Britain should take advantage of the temporary union of classes and parties for the implementation of promising socio-economic transformation through peaceful means - 'the consent of the revolution'. The last years of his life were devoted to the study of 1946-1950 conflict between the U.S. and the USSR. In 1948, Lasky published work of American democracy.

Laski was an influential member of the British Labor Party, in 1934-1949 - a member of its executive committee, was chairman of the executive committee of the Party in 1945, when she first won a parliamentary majority and formed a Cabinet.