Signs of Change

From the opening

PAGE HOW WE LIVE AND HOW WE MIGHT LIVE 1 WHIGS, DEMOCRATS, AND SOCIALISTS 37 FEUDAL ENGLAND 55 THE HOPES OF CIVILIZATION 84 THE AIMS OF ART 117 USEFUL WORK VERSUS USELESS TOIL 141 DAWN OF A NEW EPOCH 174

THE word Revolution, which we Socialists are so often forced to use, has a terrible sound in most people’s ears, even when we have explained to them that it does not necessarily mean a change accompanied by riot and all kinds of violence, and cannot mean a change made mechanically and in the teeth of opinion by a group of men who have somehow managed to seize on the executive power for the moment. Even when we explain that we use the word revolution in its etymological sense, and mean by it a change in the basis of society, people are scared at the idea of such a vast change, and beg that you will speak of reform and not revolution. As, however, we Socialists do not at all mean by our word revolution what these worthy people mean by their word reform, I can’t help thinking that it would be a mistake to use it, whatever projects we might conceal beneath its harmless envelope. So we will stick to our word, which means a change of the basis of society; it may frighten people, but it will at least warn them that there is something to be frightened about, which will be no less dangerous for being ignored; and also it may encourage some people, and will mean to them at least not a fear, but a hope.

A short sample. Read the whole book

More to read

• 1995 United States Congressional Address BookUnited StatesPolitics18 pages
• A Dream of John Ball; and, A King's LessonWilliam MorrisLiterature & Fiction114 pages
• A Modest Proposal For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publickJonathan SwiftPolitics12 pages
• Chants for SocialistsWilliam MorrisLiterature & Fiction12 pages
• Child Christopher and Goldilind the FairWilliam MorrisLiterature & Fiction177 pages