logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2023
50m 54s

Long Reads: William Morris, Romantic Rev...

JACOBIN
About this episode

William Morris is renowned for his work as an artist and designer. But he was also one of Britain's greatest socialist thinkers. Morris combined his opposition to capitalism with a deep understanding of environmental questions that was rare in his own time.


Matthew Beaumont, professor of English at University College London and author of books including The Spectre of Utopia and Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London, joins Long Reads to discuss the life and thought of William Morris.


Read Matthew's essay, "The Socialist Imagination of William Morris" here: https://jacobin.com/2023/04/william-morris-socialism-communism-arts-crafts


Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Nov 2024
Dig: MAGA 2.0 w/ Quinn Slobodian & Wendy Brown
Featuring Quinn Slobodian and Wendy Brown on Trump’s triumphant return to power and the freakish, obscene, billionaire-dominated, capitalist reactionary, Christian nationalist, contradiction-ridden MAGA movement that surrounds him. A comprehensive early assessment of what is goin ... Show More
2h 34m
Nov 2024
Long Reads: Netanyahu Is a Wanted Man w/ John Reynolds
Last week, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant. It was a rare moment of hope for Palestinians, but the US government responded with outrage. Earlier this year, a rep ... Show More
46m 40s
Nov 2024
Jacobin Radio: The Landslide That Wasn't w/ Marc Cooper
Veteran journalist Marc Cooper joins Suzi to talk about the landslide that wasn’t, Trump’s transition swamp, and the state of the Fourth Estate. Trump’s victory is confined to the undemocratic electoral college. His winning margin in the popular vote is 1.6 percentage points, the ... Show More
57m 55s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2018
William Morris
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of William Morris, known in his lifetime for his poetry and then his contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement, and increasingly for his political activism. He felt the world had given in to drudgery and ugliness and he found inspirati ... Show More
53m 10s
Jul 2023
Podcasts From Nowhere: William Morris' Romantic Marxism
Kevin recently gave a talk about William Morris' transition from romantic anti-capitalism to Marxism and is thus well suited to school us on the subject. We decided to record it and share it with all of you.  William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary - Cascadian Midsummer 20 ... Show More
58m 20s
Jun 2010
Edmund Burke
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the eighteenth-century philosopher, politician and writer Edmund Burke.Born in Dublin, Burke began his career in London as a journalist and made his name with two works of philosophy before entering Parliament. There he quickly esta ... Show More
42m 6s
Aug 2023
Roger Mortimer: medieval rebel
Seven hundred years ago this August, Roger Mortimer broke out of the Tower of London and went on to mastermind the deposition of his captor and arch-enemy, Edward II. In conversation with Spencer Mizen, Paul Dryburgh explains why he believes the hugely talented baron was one of t ... Show More
33m 4s
Jan 2024
The Bloomsbury Group: everything you wanted to know
From the groundbreaking novels of Virginia Woolf to the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, the Bloomsbury Group shook up British culture in the early 20th century. In conversation with Rebecca Franks, Frances Spalding answers listener questions on this daring set of intell ... Show More
35m 47s
Nov 2021
"The Oppressed Have a Way of Addressing Their Own Conditions" - On Joshua Myers' Cedric Robinson: The Time of the Black Radical Tradition
In this episode we host Joshua Myers, to talk about his recently published book Cedric Robinson: The Time of the Black Radical Tradition. Folks will recall that last year we had a conversation with Josh Myers about Cedric Robinson much of which centered around the content and con ... Show More
2h 6m
Jun 2021
Edward Gibbon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of one of the great historians, best known for his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (published 1776-89). According to Gibbon (1737-94) , the idea for this work came to him on 15th of October 1764 as he sat musi ... Show More
52m 22s
Jun 2021
Edward Gibbon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of one of the great historians, best known for his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (published 1776-89). According to Gibbon (1737-94) , the idea for this work came to him on 15th of October 1764 as he sat musi ... Show More
52m 22s
Dec 2023
575 A History of the Fool (with Peter Andersson) | My Last Book with Ed Simon
Shakespeare helped to make the Fool a common literary character. But what about the real-life fools who served in actual courts? Who were they and what kind of lives did they lead? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Peter K. Andersson about his book Fool: In Search of Henry V ... Show More
1h 4m