Professor Tony Webster

Tony's key publications include Gentlemen Capitalists: British Imperialism in Southeast Asia 1770-1890 (Tauris 1998); The Debate on the Rise of the British Empire (Manchester University Press 2006); The Richest East India Merchant: The Life and Business of John Palmer of Calcutta (Boydell 2007), The Empire in One City: Liverpool’s Inconvenient Past (Manchester University Press 2008 – edited with Nick White and Sheryllynne Haggerty), The Twilight of the East India Company: The Evolution of Anglo-Asian Commerce and Politics 1790-1860 (Boydell 2009), Commodities, Ports and Asian Maritime Trade since 1770 (Palgrave 2015 – edited with Ulbe Bosma), Mainstreaming Co-operation: An Alternative for the 21st Century (Manchester University Press 2016 – edited with Linda Shaw and Rachael Vorberg-Rugh). In 2005 he was awarded the Newcomen Prize for best article for that year in Enterprise & Society, for his article on John Palmer. With Professor John Wilson (Director of the Newcastle University Business School) and Rachael Vorberg-Rugh (the Co-operative College) he wrote Building Co-operation: A Business History of the Co-operative Group 1863-2013 (Oxford University Press 2013). The book formed the principal historical source used for the Kelly Report into the problems of the Co-operative Bank (2014), and Tony has presented his research at a Bank of England Seminar (2015). The project was supported by the British co-operative movement, with which Tony retains close links. Tony's principal latest publications are Co-operation and Globalisation (Routledge 2019) and (with Nick White) Singapore - Two Hundred Years of the Lion City (Routledge 2020). Tony's latest articles are “Commerce with a bit of ethics or ethics with a bit of commerce? The conundrum of British consumer co-operation 1863-1990" with J. Wilson & N. Wong. Journal of Management History (June 2020), at https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JMH-01-2020-0008/full/html and  “Local regeneration and community wealth building–place making: co-operatives as agents of change” with Olga Kuznetsova, Cilla Ross, Cécile Berranger, Michelle Booth, Temidayo Eseonu, Yaron Golan, Journal of Place Management and Development (December 2020) at https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1753-8335#earlycite

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Coping with crisis: Strategic renewal in The Co-operative Group, 2013-2023, Webster, A., Wilson, J. 1 Dec 2023, The Consumer Co-operative Sector, New York, Taylor & Francis
• Preface and acknowledgements, Wilson, J., Webster, A., Ekberg, E., Skurnik, S. 1 Dec 2023, The Consumer Co-operative Sector, New York, US, Taylor & Francis
• Strategic renewal in the consumer co-operative sector: An international study, Wilson, J., Webster, A., Ekberg, E., Skurnik, S. 1 Dec 2023, The Consumer Co-operative Sector, New York, Taylor & Francis
• The consumer co-operative sector: International perspectives on strategic renewal, Wilson, J., Webster, A., Ekberg, E., Skurnik, S. 1 Dec 2023
• Themes, lessons and further research, Wilson, J., Webster, A., Ekberg, E., Skurnik, S. 1 Dec 2023, The Consumer Co-operative Sector, New York, Taylor & Francis
• Commerce with a bit of Ethics, or Ethics with a bit of Commerce? The Conundrum of British Consumer Co-operation 1863-1990, Webster, T., Wilson, J., Wong, N. 7 Jul 2021, In: Journal of Management History
• Local regeneration and community wealth building–place making: co-operatives as agents of change, Webster, T., Kuznetsova, O., Ross, C., Berranger, C., Booth, M., Eseonu, T., Golan, Y. 15 Oct 2021, In: Journal of Place Management and Development
• Co-operation and Globalisation: The British Co-operative Wholesales, the Co-operative Group and the World since 1863, Webster, T. 19 Mar 2019
• Singapore, the Straits Settlements & the politics of imperial commerce, 1819–1867, Webster, A. 31 Oct 2019, Singapore, London, Taylor & Francis
• Going Global. The Rise of the cws as an International Commercial and Political Actor, 1863–1950: Scoping an Agenda for Further Research, Webster, T., Wilson, J., Vorberg-Rugh, R. Jul 2017, A Global History of Consumer Co-operation since 1850: Movements and Businesses, Leiden, Brill

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Other: Contribution to radio 4 programme: British socialism: The Grand Tour 2018
• Invited talk: “Entrepreneurship & Co-operation” 2016
• Invited talk: “The People’s Colossus: The CWS and the World 1863-1970” 29 October 2016 2016
• Invited talk: " The People’s Colossus: The CWS and the World 1863-1970” 2016
• Invited talk: “The Cooperative Movement - beyond repair or the answer to all our problems?” 2016
• Invited talk: The Co-operative Bank Crisis 2013: Origins and Lessons 2015
• Invited talk: “The Co-operative Movement in Britain: From Crisis to Renaissance 1950-2010” 2015
• Invited talk: ’Co-operative Tiggers’ 11 October 2014 2014
• Other: “Future of British Co-operatives Rests on Radical New Thinking” 2014
• Invited talk: “Building Co-operation: From CWS to Co-operative Group: 150 Years of a Co-operative Giant” (organised by the Co-operative Group Northern Ireland Region) 2013

• David Hope Britain and the Fur Trade: Commerce and Consumers in the North-Atlantic World, 1783-1821 Start Date: 23/10/2013 End Date: 03/01/2017
• Mark Stoddart 'The political and social construction of work in North Eastern Engineering Industries, 1880-1918' Start Date: 01/10/2016 End Date: 17/11/2021
• Mark Stoddart The Political and Social Construction of Work in North Eastern Engineering and Shipbuilding, 1880-1918 Start Date: 01/10/2016 End Date: 25/01/2023
• Mark Stoddart 'The political and social construction of work in North Eastern Engineering Industries, 1880-1918' Start Date: 01/10/2016 End Date: 13/04/2021
• David Hope Britain and the Fur Trade: Commerce and Consumers in the North-Atlantic World, 1783-1821 Start Date: 23/10/2013 End Date: 03/01/2017

• History DPhil December 06 1984
• Information not provided Royal Historical Society 2013
• Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2002