Audiobook · read by volunteers
Unto this Last: Four Essays on the First Principles of Political Economy
John Ruskin (1819–1900)
Read by Hugh McGuire, Carl Manchester, Gesine, Sibella Denton · 5 chapters · 3 h 16
About the book
What is wealth, and what is it for? John Ruskin, known above all as an art critic, turned in 1860 to questions of economics and asked them in a way that startled many of his contemporaries. In four essays, he challenges the accepted principles of political economy and argues that the true business of a society is the well-being of its people, not the heaping up of riches. His style is that of a moral preacher and a master of prose, forceful, eloquent and sometimes provoking. The essays have the titles The Roots of Honour, The Veins of Wealth, Qui Judicatis Terram and Ad Valorem. Five recordings, about three and a quarter hours, for those who enjoy bold argument.
Introduction
John Ruskin (1819-1900) is best known for his work as an art critic and a social critic, but he was also an author, poet and artist. Unto This Last, which appeared in 1860, is an important work of political economy, and it is remembered partly because it influenced Gandhi, among others. The title comes from a parable in the Gospel of Matthew.
The book consists of four essays, first published in a magazine, where they provoked such objections that the series was stopped before it was complete. Ruskin takes issue with the prevailing economic thought of his day, which treated people as motivated mainly by the desire for gain. He proposes instead that economics should be rooted in justice, affection and honour, and that real wealth is measured by the quality of life it makes possible.
Readers today may find the writing demanding because Ruskin’s sentences are long and his reasoning is not that of a modern economist. His rhetoric, however, is vivid and his convictions are plain. The essays are often read as moral philosophy as much as economics.
The recording was made by LibriVox volunteers and has five files, one for each essay and a division of the last into parts, with a total length of about three and a quarter hours. It is suitable for anyone interested in the history of economic thought, in Victorian social criticism, or in ideas that influenced later movements for reform.
Public domain
John Ruskin died in 1900: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text