Richard Henry Tawney (R.H. Tawney) (1880 - 1962) was an English writer, economist, historian, social critic and university professor and a leading advocate of Christian Socialism
Born in Calcutta, India, Tawney was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford where he studied modern history.
He joined the executive of the Workers' Educational Association in 1905 serving as the WEA's president in the 1920s and remaining with the organisation until 1947. He lectured at Glasgow University in the years leading to World War I and became a lecturer at the London School of Economics in 1917 where he remained for the rest of his career becoming professor of economic history in 1931.
He supported the Republic during the Spanish Civil War among other political causes.
Among his books are The Acquisitive Society (1921), Secondary Education for All (1922), Education: the Socialist Policy (1924), Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926) and Equality (1931).
He twice ran for a seat in the House of Commons for the Labour Party without success.
