University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Pages: 318
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-68393-073-0 • Hardback • October 2019 • $95.00 • (£73.00)
978-1-68393-074-7 • eBook • October 2019 • $90.00 • (£69.00)
Jason D. Martinek is associate professor of history at New Jersey City University.
Elizabeth Carolyn Miller is professor of English at the University of California, Davis.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: “The Earthly Paradox”: Teaching William Morris
Jason D. Martinek and Elizabeth Carolyn Miller
Part I: Pasts and Presents
1. “Teaching Morris in Chicago, c. 1900”
Elizabeth Helsinger
2. “Naturalizing the Dignity of Labor: The Hull-House Labor Museum and William Morris’s Influence on the American Settlement House Movement”
Elizabeth Grennan Browning
3. “Time Travelling with William Morris”
John Plotz
4. “‘Work and Fun’ and ‘Education at its Finest:’ Teaching Morris at Kelmscott House,”
Helen Elleston
5. “The Medievalism of William Morris: Teaching Through Tolkien”
KellyAnn Fitzpatrick
Part II: Political Contexts
6. “A Dream of William Cobbett? Teaching Morris’s John Ball in an Interdisciplinary Course on Victorian Radicalism”
Linda Hughes and William M. Meier
7. “‘Vive La Commune!’ The Imaginary of the Paris Commune and the Arts and Crafts Movement”
Morna O’Neill
8. “‘Living in Heaven’: Hope and Change in News from Nowhere”
David Latham
Part III: Literature
9. “Morris Matters: News from Nowhere and Victorian Materialities”
Susan David Bernstein
10. “Teaching News from Nowhere in a Course on ‘The Simple Life’”
Michael Robertson
11. “Teaching Morris the Utopian”
Deanna Kreisel
12. “Teaching Guenevere Through Word and Image”
Pamela Bracken
13. “Morris and the Literary Canon”
Michelle Weinroth
Part IV: Art and Design
14. “Morris for Art Historians”
Imogen Hart
15. “William Morris, designer”
James Housefield
16. “William Morris and the Intersection of the Histories of Art and Design”
Julie Codell
Part V: Digital Humanities
17. “Morris for Many Audiences: Teaching with the William Morris Archive”
Florence Boos
18. “William Morris on Social Media: A Personal Experience, 2007-2017”
Tony Pinkney
19. “Digital Design with William Morris”
Amanda Golden
Index
About the Contributors
Divided into five sections, this volume from editors Martinek (New Jersey City Univ.) and Miller (Univ. of California, Davis) presents a range of perspectives from 20 scholars on the life and work of William Morris. The editors have approached Morris's work holistically, addressing the multidimensional aspects of his many fields of study in the Victorian era. Although most of the essays reinforce the notion that Morris is difficult to teach, undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from his oeuvre as they analyze his conscious rejections of social, aesthetic, and political forms in his literary writings. Morris’s critical hope will help students imagine a better world. In sum, teachers will find all 19 chapters packed with ideas and valuable notes that extend beyond an instructor’s basic knowledge. For example, chapter 19 in the book's final section, titled "Digital Humanities," uses the William Morris Archive as well as artifacts of the Arts and Crafts movement employing Google images to demonstrate that technology and art overlap. Ultimately, by studying Morris students can glean new connections to the past that offer inspiration for the present. This text is especially valuable for interprofessional study.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals.
— CHOICE