This volume offers an exciting new reading of John Ruskin's economic and social criticism, based on recent research into rhetoric in economics. Willie Henderson uses notions derived from literary criticism, the rhetorical turn in economics and more conventional approaches to historical economic texts to reevaluate Ruskins economic and social criticism. By identifying Ruskin's rhetoric, and by reading his work through that of Plato, Xenophon, and John Stuart Mill, Willie Henderson reveals how Ruskin manipulated a knowledge base. Moreover in analysis of the writings of William Smart, John Bates Clark and Alfred Marshall, the author shows that John Ruskin's influence on the cultural significance of economics and on notions of economic well-being has been considerable.
1 Reason, rhetoric and John Ruskin 2 Why read Ruskin on political economy? 3 Ruskin on economic agency 4 Xenophon, Ruskin and economic management 5 Plato and Ruskin: searching for economic justice 6 John Ruskin reading John Stuart Mill 7 Systematic and anti-systematic thinking: Ruskin and Mill revisited 8 William Smart (1853–1915): economist and Ruskinian? 9 Ruskinian influences on other theorists: John Bates Clark an1d Alfred Marshall
Biography
William Henderson (University of Minnesota Duluth, USA)
...a reading of Ruskin which is original, new and fecund. - Luigino Bruni, History of Economic Ideas IX 2001\1
