William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary - Softcover

Thompson, E. P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804715092 ISBN 13: 9780804715096

Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr, 1988

Synopsis

This biographical study is a window into 19th-century British society and the life of William Morris the great craftsman, architect, designer, poet, and writer who remains a monumental and influential figure to this day. This account chronicles how his concern with artistic and human values led him to cross what he called the river of fireā and become a committed socialist committed not only to the theory of socialism but also to the practice of it in the day-to-day struggle of working women and men in Victorian England. While both the British Labor Movement and the Marxists have venerated Morris, this legacy of his life proves that many of his ideas did not accord with the dominant reforming tendencies, providing a unique perspective on Morris scholarship.

About this title

About the Author:

E. P. Thompson was an English historian, socialist, and author of Making of the English Working Class. Peter Linebaugh is a social historian and a professor at the University of Toledo. He is the author of London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century. He lives in Toledo, Ohio.

Review:

'Two impressive figures, William Morris as subject and E. P. Thompson as author, are conjoined in this immense biographical-historical-critical study, and both of them have gained in stature since the first edition of the book was published ... The book that was ignored in 1955 has meanwhile become something of an underground classic - almost impossible to locate in second-hand bookstores, pored over in libraries, required reading for anyone interested in Morris and, increasingly, for anyone interested in one of the most important of contemporary British historians ... Thompson has the distinguishing characteristic of a great historian: he has transformed the nature of the past, it will never look the same again; and whoever works in the area of his concerns in the future must come to terms with what Thompson has written. So too with his study of William Morris.' Peter Stansky, The New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0804715092
• ISBN 13: 9780804715096
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 829