John Ruskin's Politics and Natural Law

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Graham A. MacDonald

   Pages 1-24

3. The Wine Merchant’s Son: Ruskin’s Discovery of the World

   • Graham A. MacDonald

   Pages 25-50

4. Art, Morality and the Fate of Nations: 1848–53

   • Graham A. MacDonald

   Pages 51-88

5. On the Moral Disorder of Victorian England: From Art to Political Economy: 1853–63

   • Graham A. MacDonald

   Pages 89-120

6. Wealth, Justice and the Medieval Poor Law: 1864–70

   • Graham A. MacDonald

   Pages 121-146

7. Towards Pluralism: Oxford Teaching and Natural Law: 1870–77

   • Graham A. MacDonald

   Pages 147-187

8. Easing Towards ‘A Vast Policy’: Establishing the Guild of St. George

   • Graham A. MacDonald

   Pages 189-220

9. The Condition of Political Virtue: Co-operative Individualism and Civil Association

   • Graham A. MacDonald

   Pages 221-257

10. Erratum to: John Ruskin’s Politics and Natural Law

    • Graham A. MacDonald

    Pages E1-E1

11. Back Matter

    Pages 259-276

    PDF

This book offers new perspectives on the origins and development of John Ruskin’s political thought. Graham A. MacDonald traces the influence of late medieval and pre-Enlightenment thought in Ruskin’s writing, reintroducing readers to Ruskin’s politics as shaped through his engagement with concepts of natural law, legal rights, labour and welfare organization. From Ruskin’s youthful studies of geology and chemistry to his back-to-the-land project, the Guild of St. George, he emerges as a complex political thinker, a reformer—and what we would recognize today as an environmentalist. John Ruskin’s Politics and Natural Law is a nuanced reappraisal of neglected areas of Ruskin’s thought.

• John Ruskin
• John Ruskin's political thought
• history of political thought
• pre-Enlightenment
• natural law
• late medieval social organization
• Guild of St. George
• Labour Party
• English welfare state
• Victorian England
• Carlyle
• John Stuart Mill
• Evangelical religious thought
• Victorian political economy

“In this major new interpretation, Graham MacDonald recovers the centrality of natural law to Ruskin’s understanding of ethics and history. The book presents a dazzlingly erudite survey not just of Ruskin’s intellectual biography, but the whole universe of influences that shaped his work.” (Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Associate Professor of British History, The University of Chicago, USA)

“In this solidly researched study, MacDonald expertly teases out the implications of Ruskin’s ideas through a close reading of Ruskin’s voluminous writings, framing them within their intellectual and historical context. He astutely concludes that Ruskin’s concerns about natural law, environmental stewardship, and the costs of limitless economic growth resonate in our own times.” (Donald G. Wetherell, Professor Emeritus of Heritage Resources Management, Athabasca University, Canada)

“MacDonald’s focus on the importance of natural law to Ruskin’s work is long overdue, and underlines the complex range of influences on the formation of Ruskin’s political outlook.” (Mark Frost, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Portsmouth, UK)

• Parksville, BC, Canada

  Graham A. MacDonald

Graham A. MacDonald has worked as a teacher, librarian, park planner, heritage consultant and
historian.  Between 1991 and 2001 he was National Park Historian for Parks Canada, Western Region. He is the author of numerous books and articles. 

Policies and ethics