William Morris’s Socialism and Politics

A selection of key articles published over 40 years by the Journal of William Morris Studies on Morris’s politics and socialism. It makes available fine scholarship from the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, showing both the breadth and depth of William Morris’s achievements as a creative and pioneering socialist. 

Since the early 1960s, the Journal of the William Morris Society (renamed Journal of William Morris Studies in 2005) has attracted a wide range of scholars to consider the life and work of this pivotal figure in Victorian culture. During that time the journal has published nearly 120 articles, exploring all areas of Morris’s social, political and environmental thought as well as his energetic political activism.

The contributions gathered in this volume provide many original insights, as well as unearthing fresh material from the archives. The lifetime trajectory of Morris’s politics and socialism is often discussed in ways that show how it emerges from, interconnects with and informs the many other areas of his work – art, design, literature, poetry, arts and crafts manufacture, fine book publishing and production. There is no other collection of articles of this type, with the range of contributors representing a virtual who’s-who of Morris scholarship. William Morris’s social and political values, his actions, his utopian writings and his libertarian socialism resonate even more widely today than perhaps they did in his own time.

At a moment in history when disillusion and distrust of current politics and politicians has grown significantly, a figure such as Morris offers renewal and hope. This book allows great opportunities to reflect on the culture, context and genealogy of his beliefs while inviting the reader to revisit political possibilities and paths not taken… paths that perhaps should be embarked upon now.

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).

• Edited by John Blewitt