Preview
The clergymen, nonconformist ministers, lawyers, academics, and middle-class ladies who collected together in the Ruskin societies to study and to promote Ruskin's work were to a remarkable extent involved in local civic reforms, and national political debate. They helped to promote Ruskin's social message through speaker-meetings and debates. Several branches of the Society engaged in local campaigns, such as better housing for the poor and the abolition of ‘sweated’ labour, the teaching of spinning to blind girls and of access to art for local schoolchildren, and the Birmingham society established the influential progressive Edwardian journal, Saint George. For the first time, this chapter presents an in-depth analysis of this previously underestimated network of Ruskin enthusiasts and demonstrates the nature and extent of its significance, locally and nationally.
Keywords: Ruskin Society; Manchester; Glasgow; London; Liverpool; Manchester; civic reform; Union; literary societies; Saint George; civic reform
Chapter. 21228 words.
Subjects: Modern History (1700 to 1945)
Go to Oxford Scholarship Online » abstract
Full text: subscription required
How to subscribe Recommend to my Librarian
Buy this work at Oxford University Press »
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content. Please, subscribe or login to access all content.