News from Nowhere

News from Nowhere (1890) is the most famous work of one of the greatest British writers and thinkers, William Morris. It is a utopian picture of a future communist society, drawing on the work of Ruskin and Marx and written in response to what Morris saw as soulless and mechanical visions of socialism. In this work of his last years, Morris distilled many of his leading ideas on politics, art and society, imagining a world in which capitalism has been abolished by a workers’ revolution and nature and society have become beautiful habitations for humanity. In an era that has seen the collapse of state socialism, Morris’s damning critique of this conception, and his positing of a powerful alternative, have important contemporary resonances.

• New edition of a classic of British socialism • Distils many of Morris’s leading ideas on politics, art and society • Provides more detailed interpretative notes than previous editions

1. Discussion and bed; 2. A morning bath; 3. The guest house and breakfast therein; 4. A market by the way; 5. Children on the road; 6. A little shopping; 7. Trafalgar Square; 8. An old friend; 9. Concerning love; 10. Questions and answers; 11. Concerning government; 12. Concerning the arrangement of life; 13. Concerning politics; 14. How matters are managed; 15. On the lack of incentive to labour in a communist society; 16. Dinner in the hall of the Bloomsbury market; 17. How the change came; 18. The beginning of the new life; 19. The drive back to Hammersmith; 20. The Hammersmith guest house again; 21. Going up the river; 22. Hampton Court, and a praiser of past times; 23. An early morning by Runnymede; 24. Up the Thames; 25. The third day on the Thames; 26. The Obstinate Refusers; 27. The upper waters; 28. The little river; 29. A resting-place on the upper Thames; 30. The journey’s end; 31. An old house amongst new folk; 32. The feast’s beginning - the end.