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William Morris and the problem of Englishness
In The Lion and the Unicorn George Orwell suggested that English socialists
had underestimated the unifying role of patriotism in the struggle for socialist
change. Marxists in particular, seduced by ideas of class struggle, had
mistakenly associated socialism with soulless internationalism. Considering
how eager late nineteenth century socialists – and Marxists - were to wrap
their ideas in patriotic garb, Orwell’s view appears dubious. Yet the idea that
English socialists have neglected the importance of patriotism has proved to
be persuasive: in recent years early socialists, including William Morris, the
subject of this paper, have again been accused of wrongly overlooking the
importance of national tradition to socialism. Whilst historians have
acknowledged the force of his ‘oppositional Englishness’, political theorists -
notably David Miller - have argued that Morris opted for a sub-national form of
community, based on fellowship, as the preferred unit of socialist
organisation....
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Politics and International Studies
Pages
76939 bytesCitation
KINNA, R., 2006. William Morris and the problem of Englishness. European Journal of Political Theory, 5(1), pp. 85-99Publisher
© SagePublication date
2006Notes
This article has been published in the journal, European Journal of Political Theory [© Sage]. The definitive version: KINNA, R., 2006. William Morris and the problem of Englishness. European Journal of Political Theory, 5(1), pp. 85-99, is available at: http://ept.sagepub.com/.ISSN
1474-8851Language
- en