Much loved in his own era, William Morris has inspired Prime Ministers (Clement Attlee), artists and eco-socialists (John Bellamy Foster). Ferociously opposed to capitalism and inequality, he sought to embrace humanity with passion, commitment, energy and belief working vigorously for a free, green and non-hierarchical future. All this - with his distrust of conventional politicians and with his belief that people can and must change the world - resonates in social movement politics today. This book offers a fresh perspective: a transhistorical approach presenting Morris's libertarian politics through exploring his intellectual and cultural heritage and considering practical-political issues, actions and aims. Today we see how class intersects with gender, politics with technology and economics, ecology with industry and economics, art with history. John Blewitt shows how these - and more - intersect with each other and with power, domination, resistance, emergence and transcendence. Morris helps us grapple with these challenges offering an ethics and a politics embracing socialism, communism, anarchism and feminism. Hark the rolling of the thunder! Lo the sun! and lo thereunder Riseth wrath, and hope, and wonder, And the host comes marching on.

About the Author
John Blewitt is an independent writer and educator having been Head of Lifelong Learning at Exeter University and Director of the MSc Social Responsibility and Sustainability at Aston University. He is author of Understanding Sustainable Development (Routledge 3rd edition, 2018) and editor of William Morris and John Ruskin: a New Road On Which the World Should Travel (University of Exeter Press, 2019). He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Schumacher Institute and a member of the William Morris Society.


Book Information
ISBN 9780850367553
Author John Blewitt
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint The Merlin Press Ltd
Publisher The Merlin Press Ltd