Hopes and Fears for Art

In his later years, Morris became an active and respected lecturer and writer on social and cultural themes, the successor to Carlyle and Ruskin. He published two volumes of these writings in his lifetime, "Hopes and Fears for Art" in 1882 and "Signs of Change" in 1888. Since it was in 1883 that he committed himself to Socialism, the two volumes read together show clearly the development of his political-cultural thinking. All the lectures deal, in clear and vigorous English, with issues of work, ecology and society that are still of central concern today.