The magazine began as a journal of Christian liberalism and socialism. Orage and Jackson re-oriented it to promote the ideas of
Nietzsche,
Fabian socialism and later a form of
guild socialism. But
The New Age did publish opposing viewpoints and arguments, even on issues upon which Orage had strong opinions. Topics covered in detail included: • the role of
private property – in a debate between
H. G. Wells and Shaw against
G. K. Chesterton and
Hilaire Belloc • the need for a socialist party (as distinct from the newly formed
Labour Party) •
women's suffrage On this last point, the editorial line moved from initial support to bitter opposition by 1912. As
The New Age moved away from Fabian politics, the leaders of the
Fabian Society,
Beatrice and
Sydney Webb founded the journal
The New Statesman to counter its effect in 1913, and this, combined with the growing distance between Orage and the mainstream left, reduced its influence. By then, the editorial line supported
guild socialism, expounded in articles by
G. D. H. Cole and
S. G. Hobson among others. After
World War I, Orage began to support the
social credit theory of
C. H. Douglas.
The New Age also concerned itself with the definition and development of
modernism in the visual arts, literature and music, and consistently observed, reviewed and contributed to the activities of the movement. The journal became one of the first places in England in which
Sigmund Freud's ideas were discussed before the First World War, in particular by
David Eder, an early British psychoanalyst. ==Production==