Ever wonder about the man dubbed the "socialist Forrest Gump" of the 19th century?. Born in India to a military family, Henry Stephens Salt was funneled into the elite world of Eton College, where he eventually became a radical teacher who spent his nights translating Marx and obsessing over the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Despite being a "poor autistic kid" surrounded by the wealthy elite, he rejected the aristocrat bubble to forge a life of radical resistance. This episode dives into the hidden history of an unlikely academic rebel who became a secret pivot point for history’s most famous thinkers, counting everyone from Gandhi and Peter Kropotkin to the daughter of Karl Marx as his close associates.
At the heart of Salt’s story is his groundbreaking "creed of kinship," a holistic philosophy that dared to link the mistreatment of animals directly to the exploitation of the working class and the horrors of imperialist war. In 1891, he founded the Humanitarian League, a radical organization that campaigned for everything from better prison conditions to the abolition of the "barbarity" of slaughterhouses. Listeners will discover Salt’s staggering intellectual reach, including how his writing famously convinced a young Mahatma Gandhi to adopt vegetarianism for ethical reasons rather than just religious tradition. He argued that true civilization could only be achieved through empathy and universal cooperation across all species, a message that pushed the boundaries of the era's political imagination.
Beyond the high-stakes politics, this episode explores Salt’s deeply personal and often eccentric life in the English countryside, where he lived out his ethics "hand-to-mouth". You will hear about his unconventional marriage to Kate—a woman George Bernard Shaw claimed was the true brains of the operation—and Salt’s later years spent jokingly "cursing" his healthy vegetarian lifestyle for keeping him alive well into his late 80s. From dodging police during the Bloody Sunday riots to writing a defiant funeral address that challenged the very definition of "civilization," Salt’s life offers a masterclass in living one's convictions. Join us to explore the legacy of a man who viewed social problems as inseparable from ecological ones and left behind a blueprint for radical resistance that remains vital today.
For sources, transcripts, and to read more about this subject, visit: www.agroecologies.org
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Key Words:
Henry Stephens Salt, HSS Salt, Old Honey, Socialist Forrest Gump, Eton College radical, Vegetarianism history, Animal rights and animal welfare, Anti-vivisection activist, Humanitarian League, Environmental resistance, Creed of Kinship philosophy, Radical empathy and cooperation, Mahatma Gandhi influence, Peter Kropotkin and mutual aid, George Bernard Shaw friendship, Percy Bysshe Shelley poetry obsession, Scientific socialism, Bloody Sunday 1887, Trafalgar Square protests, 70 Years Among Savages book, The Call of the Wildflower book, Universal cooperation vs competition, Ethical vs religious vegetarianism, Holistic humanitarianism, Ecological and social problems interconnection, Anti-vaccination history, Doctrine of simplicity and lifestyle, Henry David Thoreau biography
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