This the autobiographical work of Howard Evans (1839–1915) who was a British Radical and Nonconformist journalist. The book paints a vivid picture of conditions in the 19th century and how courageous reformers like John Stuart Mill, himself and his associate W. Randal Cremer stood for human rights and the beginnings of the Labour and Peace Movements. Evans wrote in 1878, "I believe firmly that in politics as well as religion God has his own elect chosen out from the rest of the world to be the pioneers of progress". Together with Cremer he formed the Inter Parliamentary Union and the International Arbitration League and laid the foundations for the International Court of Justice in the passionate search for an alternative to war as a solution for international disputes.