News from Nowhere

2018 Reprint of 1901 Edition.  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, are compelling reasons for paying attention to this classic of British socialism. One of the most literary and readable of utopian novels, News from Nowhere chronicles the impressions of a nineteenth-century visitor to the twenty-second century, who finds England transformed into a socialist paradise. Morris’ idyllic society echoes themes from the writings of Ruskin and Marx but forms a distinctive expression of the author’s own egalitarian views. A distillation of Morris’ mature reflections on politics, art and society, this work was regarded as an exercise in sentimentality upon its 1890 publication. Modern readers, however, are likely to find resonance in its critique of state socialism and its proposals for an alternative society.