William Morris’s Socialism and Politics

More than a century after his death, William Morris remains best known as a designer. For Morris, however, art was inseparable from politics. You can’t fully appreciate Morris the artist – or Morris the poet, prose writer, translator, printer, environmentalist or preservationist – without understanding his socialism. John Blewitt has collected eighteen of the best essays on Morris’s socialism written over the past four decades. This is an invaluable book for anyone interested in what William Morris can teach us about how to make a better future.

Michael Robertson, Professor Emeritus, The College of New Jersey

John Blewitt has put together an exceptional collection of essays that illuminates the intricate beauty of a largely forgotten form of socialism.

Ryan McIlhenny, Professor of Liberal Arts and Humanities at Shanghai Xing Wei College, author of American Socialist: Laurence Gronlund and the Power behind Revolution

Never was there a more urgent need to remember William Morris’s claim that everyone is entitled to a decent, fulfilling and ‘eager’ life. In an increasingly bewildering and unstable world, this timely and impressive book reminds us of the relevance of Morris’s political thought across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawn from a diverse and vibrant range of articles from The Journal of the William Morris Society and its successor The Journal of William Morris Studies, this book is testimony to the energy and commitment of those who continue to think, write and talk about Morris, encouraging us never to stop wondering about how we might live, rather than how we live now.

Dr Phillippa Bennett Senior Lecturer in English, University of Northampton and author of Wonderlands: The Last Romances of William Morris

William Morris remains widely admired for his designs, but the socialism that infected and drove those designs is ignored or denied. This began only days after he died but his artistic and political analysis, sometimes one and the same thing, remains directly relevant today. This book provides a wealth of knowledge and analysis, ranging from the environment to gender, all in support of Morris’s concern to see us bring about our emancipation from the shackles of capitalism.

Professor Ian Wall, Chair of The William Morris Society

A truly compelling collection of essays, which brilliantly consider Morris’s place within Victorian political thought but also highlight the relevance of his radical socialism for contemporary debates from urbanism to anti-imperialism to alienation and aesthetics. This is a much needed volume of arresting and significant readings of Morris and his unique contribution to culture and politics.

Dr Tristram Hunt, Director, Victoria and Albert Museum

Introduction John Blewitt
DOI: 10.47788/RQXM5395
1. ‘The Down-Trodden Radical’: William Morris’s Pre-Socialist Ideology Nicholas Salmon
DOI: 10.47788/AQQJ7007
2. Nature and Art: Morris’s Conception of Progress Isolde Karen Herbert
DOI: 10.47788/EHZB1314
3. William Morris’s Egalitarian Perfectionism Christine Sypnowich
DOI: 10.47788/IGLC6184
4. William Morris and ‘Education Towards Revolution’: ‘Making Socialists’ versus ‘Putting Them in Their Place’ Stephen Coleman
DOI: 10.47788/JUQR7335
5. William Morris and the Contemporary Socialist Press Helen Irving
DOI: 10.47788/VWTX3104
6. William Morris and the Socialism of Robert Blatchford Chris Waters
DOI: 10.47788/UJCF7021
7. In Search of Early Green Women: Planting Radicalism after Morris Alicia Carroll
DOI: 10.47788/SPWH9279
8. ‘Morris the Red, Morris the Green’: A Partial Review Patrick O’Sullivan
DOI: 10.47788/FIEA8313
9. William Morris, Commonweal and Imperialism Peter Halton
DOI: 10.47788/VPUK8284
10. Hypocrisy and Cant and Vicarious Ferocity Jan Marsh
DOI: 10.47788/JNLA5145
11. Morris on Tyne: A Sunday Lecture John Stirling
DOI: 10.47788/UOSR6852
12. Versions of the Past, Problems of the Present, Hopes for the Future: Morris and Others Rewrite the Peasants’ Revolt Julia Courtney
DOI: 10.47788/FFIR5886
13. Liberation Ecologies, circa 1871 Elizabeth Carolyn Miller
DOI: 10.47788/AIGE7326
14. Morris and the Homeric Epic: Translating The Odyssey into Socialist Praxis Michelle Weinroth
DOI: 10.47788/ALZF6742
15. William Morris’s Romantic Revolutionary Ideal: Nature, Labour and Gender in News from Nowhere John Bellamy Foster
DOI: 10.47788/VLFM7685
16. More, Morris, Utopia… and Us Ruth Levitas
DOI: 10.47788/DOTA8527
17. Time and Utopia: The Gap Between Morris and Bax Ruth Kinna
DOI: 10.47788/ATFX3683
18. William Morris: The Myth of the Fall Anna Vaninskaya
DOI: 10.47788/JRNP8318

John Blewitt is editor of the Journal of William Morris Studies. He has worked in further, higher and adult education and is the author of numerous works on education and environmental sustainability including The Ecology of Learning (2006), Media, Ecology and Conservation: Using the Media to Protect the World's Wildlife and Ecosystems (2010) and Understanding Sustainable Development, 3rd edition (2017). His most recent books are William Morris and the Instinct for Freedom (2019) and as editor William Morris and John Ruskin: A New Road on which the World Should Travel (University of Exeter Press, 2019).