How William Morris Became a Socialist
The critique of capitalism was central to William Morris’s vision of an arts and crafts movement in the Victorian era. Against the alienation and exploitation of a rapacious industrialism, he advocated for a conception of art capable of restoring creativity to everyday life.
For William Morris, the problem with modern society was not just a lack of beauty and aesthetic accomplishment but a fundamental disregard for the working conditions of the vast majority. (Frederick Hollyer / Wikimedia Commons)
“Apart from the desire to produce beautiful things,” declared William Morris in his 1894 essay “How I Became a Socialist,” “the leading passion in my life has been and is hatred of modern civilization.”
As his characteristically bold assertion suggests, Morris cast a skeptical eye on his era’s triumphant claims to social and technological progress. Born in 1834 on the cusp of the Victorian age, Morris pursued his leading passions in a dazzling array of literary and artistic endeavors.
Before embracing socialism in the early 1880s, he was a painter and a respected poet, a prolific designer of household goods at his firm Morris and Co., and a campaigner for the protection of ancient buildings. Late in life he founded the Kelmscott Press, which showcased his mastery of typography and enabled him to publish a series of prose romances which proved influential on the subsequent development of fantasy literature.
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