Signs of Change


Read by Deborah Brabyn

(4.5 stars; 14 reviews)

In the 1880s William Morris, the artist and poet famously associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, left the Liberal Party and threw himself into the Socialist cause. He spoke all over the country, on street corners as well as in working men's clubs and lecture halls, and edited and wrote for the Socialist League's monthly newspaper. Signs of Change is a short collection of his talks and writings in this period, first published in 1888, covering such topics as what socialism and work should be, and how capitalism and waste developed. (Summary by Deborah Brabyn) (4 hr 44 min)

Chapters

01 - How we live and how we might live, part 1 26:36 Read by Deborah Brabyn
02 - How we live and how we might live, part 2 24:21 Read by Deborah Brabyn
03 - Whigs, democrats, and socialists 23:04 Read by Deborah Brabyn
04 - Feudal England 38:58 Read by Deborah Brabyn
05 - The hopes of civilization, part 1 19:03 Read by Deborah Brabyn
06 - The hopes of civilization, part 2 26:26 Read by Deborah Brabyn
07 - The aims of art 34:51 Read by Deborah Brabyn
08 - Useful work versus useless toil, part 1 26:42 Read by Deborah Brabyn
09 - Useful work versus useless toil, part 2 21:14 Read by Deborah Brabyn
10 - Dawn of a new epoch, part 1 23:10 Read by Deborah Brabyn
11 - Dawn of a new epoch, part 2 19:48 Read by Deborah Brabyn

Reviews


(5 stars)

This work, Signs of Change by William Morris, is an utterly amazing analysis and deconstruction of government. His main focus is exposing, with surgical precision, the cancerous constitutional monarchy that binds the people of England to that monarchy via a parliament whose only function is the continuation of the status quo, i.e. the perpetual warfare and oppression that not only allows capitalism to exist but feeds it as blood feeds vampirism. Said exposition applies equally to America's "Constitutional Republic", and fully reveals the utter hypocrisy with which both the American system of "democratic" government, that is to say those who control it, as well the American people themselves use to justify their existence, whether a ruling member of the capitalistic killing machine, an active participant - that is, to say, willing fodder - in the capitalist killing machine, or a totally unaware slave of and to said rulers. Constitutions, democracies, et al exist only to ensure capitalism thrives and survives. Remember that Franklin D. Roosevelt, the "savior" of the poor, was in fact, a savior of capitalism. He himself bragged that he had saved capitalism, proving this fact. One can only dream of the better world we Americans may have built if not lulled back to sleep by Roosevelt's meager concessions known as "The New Deal".


(3 stars)

Nicely read, tone occasionally slightly off to me but overall very neatly done. A selection of writing filled to the brim with idealism, but not a whole lot of practicality - but you have to know where you're going to get there. Weird section on feudal Britain and a stark admiration for Chaucer. Some really interesting discussion on the place of art in socialism

Positive


(4.5 stars)

I loved the reader's voice, i wish she can record more. i'm not sure of the book's content though.