William Morris and the Instinct for Freedom

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.