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Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913), first Lord Avebury, was a leading figure in the scientific, political and economic world of Victorian Britain and it is the inter-relations between these worlds that forms the core of this book. In particular it explores the way in which Lubbock acted as a link between the scientific worlds of Darwin, Huxley and Tyndall, the political world of Gladstone and Chamberlain and the business world of Edison and Carnegie. By tying these threads together this study shows the important role Lubbock played in defining and popularising the Victorian ideal of progress and its relationship to society, culture and Empire.