"Socialism" names a form of collective life that has never been fully realized; consequently, it is best understood as a goal to be imagined. So this study argues, and thereby uncovers an aesthetic impulse that animates some of the most consequential socialist writing, thought, and practice of the long nineteenth century. Imagining Socialism explores this tradition of radical activism, investigating the diverse ways that British socialists-from Robert
Owen to the mid-century Christian Socialists to William Morris-marshalled the resources of the aesthetic in their efforts to surmount "politics" and develop non-governmental forms of collective life. Their ambitious attempts at social regeneration led some socialists to explore the liberatory possibilities afforded
by cooperative labor, women's emancipation, political violence, and the power of the arts themselves.
Imagining Socialism demonstrates that, far from being confined to the "socialist revival" of the fin de siecle, important socialist experiments with the emancipatory potential of the aesthetic in Britain may be found throughout the period it calls the "socialist century"-and may still inspire us today.
- ISBN10 0192896490
- ISBN13 9780192896490
- Publish Date 21 April 2021
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Oxford University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 288
- Language English