The Great Pacifist, 1894–1912

From the mid-1890s, W. T. Stead fervently took up the cause of world peace; the peace campaign, inspired by his Christian faith, became his most prominent public activity of his final years. His peace activism included a leading role in opposing the South African War of 1899–1902, a role that made him for a time arguably the most hated person in Britain. He also took a prominent role in promoting the international peace conferences at The Hague in 1899 and 1907. Through his peace commitments Stead become an increasingly international figure, who from about 1903 moved beyond his former belief in the divine mission of the ‘English-speaking race’—now to denounce ‘pseudo-scientific’ racism, to call for justice for victims of Western imperialism in Africa and India, and to promote ideas of world federation.

A Voice of the Nonconformist Conscience, 1849–80

The son of a Congregational minister in the north of England, W. T. Stead was largely taught at home by his father, and experienced conversion during the religious revival of 1859–62. In 1870, at the age of 22, he was appointed editor of the Darlington Northern Echo, and over the next decade he made the newspaper a powerful voice of the Nonconformist Conscience in the north of England. For Stead, the editor’s desk was a ‘pulpit’ from which to preach to a congregation of thousands. He played a leading role in the ‘Bulgarian atrocities’ agitation of 1876–8, calling for British intervention to end the massacres of Christians in the Ottoman Empire and becoming a fervent supporter of the Liberal politician, William Ewart Gladstone. Through the enigmatic Russian, Madame Novikoff, Stead was introduced into London cultural circles and embraced what would be a lifelong love of Russian cultures and peoples.

To Be a Christ

As assistant editor, then editor of the Pall Mall Gazette from 1880 to 1888, W. T. Stead pioneered what became known as the ‘New Journalism’, or journalism with a mission. The chapter considers Stead’s three major newspaper campaigns of the 1880s—for improved working-class housing, for sending General Gordon to the Sudan to achieve a just peace, and for exposing and ending child prostitution—with the latter ‘Maiden Tribute’ campaign leading to the ‘martyrdom’ of his trial and imprisonment. It also explores Stead’s involvement in the Irish land war and the ‘Bloody Sunday’ riots at London’s Trafalgar Square, and his friendship with Annie Besant. Underlying his crusading journalism were Stead’s religious beliefs, his sense of the editor’s desk as his pulpit, and of the editor as preacher and prophet, calling on people to follow the example of Christ in sacrificing self-interest and actively working for social reform and social justice.

Spiritualism and the Other World, 1880–1912

From the 1880s, W. T. Stead became increasingly interested in spiritualism and telepathy, believing paranormal communications provided proof of an afterlife and support for biblical accounts of angels, spirits, and miracles. Convinced that he possessed paranormal powers, he practiced automatic writing as a form of communication with the spirits of the dead. From 1893 to 1897, he edited the journal Borderland, aimed at promoting and popularizing occult studies. His Letters from Julia, first published in 1897 and claiming to be messages from the afterlife, became an international bestseller. For Stead, the Christian revival movement of 1904–5 was infused with elements of spiritualism and telepathy, and he was drawn to psychological views of religious experience. His ‘Julia’s Bureau’, formed in 1909, was meant to help individuals communicate with the spirits of the dead. While many were critical, Stead embraced spiritualism as supporting religious belief in an increasingly sceptical and secular era.

The City of God and the Civic Church, 1888–94

The years from 1888 to 1894 were for W. T. Stead a highly creative period. Inspired by the potential for the media of mass communication to unite and elevate humankind, his ideas became increasingly global. During these years, he wrote his three most important books, the Truth about Russia (1888), The Pope and the New Era (1890), and If Christ Came to Chicago! (1894). He ghost-wrote for William Booth of the Salvation Army much of the highly influential book in urban social Christianity, In Darkest England and the Way Out (1890). He founded in late 1889 a new monthly journal, the Review of Reviews, which aimed at providing readers with digests of the best articles from the world press. He also developed the plan for a ‘Civic Church’, which would unite the religious bodies, labour organizations, voluntary charities, and secular agencies in every town and city for urban social improvement.