William Blake—Social and Political Aspects:
Bibliography Based on the Collection of Ralph Dumain

Compiled by R. Dumain

BOOKS

Baum, Joan.  Mind-Forg'd Manacles: Slavery and the English Romantic Poets.  North Haven, CT: Archon Books, 1994.  Inspired by C.L.R. James!

Bronowski, J.  William Blake and the Age of Revolution.  New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965.  [also 1969 paperback ed.]

Caudwell, Christopher.  Romance and Realism: A Study in English Bourgeois Literature.  ed. with an intro. by Samuel Hynes.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970.  An embarrassing effort, not up to par for Caudwell.

DiSalvo, Jackie.  War of Titans: Blake's Critique of Milton and the Politics of Religion.  Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1983.

Epstein, James A.  Radical Expression: Political Language, Ritual, and Symbol in England, 1790-1850.  New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Erdman, David V.  Blake: Prophet Against Empire. 3rd ed.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.

Ferber, Michael.  The Social Vision of William Blake.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Lindsay, Jack.  William Blake: His Life and Work.  New York: George Braziller, 1979.

Marshall, Peter.  William Blake: Visionary Anarchist.  London: Freedom Press, 1988.

Mee, Jon.  Dangerous Enthusiasm: William Blake and the Culture of Radicalism in the 1790s.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Sabri-Tabrizi, G.R.  The 'Heaven' and 'Hell' of William Blake.  New York: International Publishers,1973.  [2 copies]  Published by the Communist Party; not the most profound work.

Schorer, Mark.  William Blake: The Politics of Vision.  New York: Vintage Books, 1959.  [2 copies]

Storch, Margaret.  Sons and Adversaries: Women in William Blake and D.H. Lawrence.  Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1990.

Thompson, E.P.  Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law.  New York: The New Press, 1993.

Winegarten, Renee.  Writers and Revolution: The Fatal Lure of Action.  New York: New Viewpoints, 1974.  Chapter 1 on Blake.

ARTICLES IN BOOKS

Aers, David.  "Representations of Revolution: From The French Revolution to The Four Zoas,” in: Critical Paths: Blake and the Argument of Method, ed. by Dan Miller, Mark Bracher, & Donald Ault (Durham: Duke University Press, 1987), pp. 244-270.

Doskow, Minna.  "William Blake and the Wheels of Compulsion," in: Berendt, Stephen C., ed., History as Myth: Essays on English Romantic Literature (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990), pp. 53-72.

Ferber, Michael.  "Blake's America and the Birth of Revolution", in: Berendt, Stephen C., ed., History as Myth: Essays on English Romantic Literature (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990), pp. 73-99.

Ostriker, Alicia.  "Desire Gratified and Ungratified: William Blake and Sexuality", in: Adams, Hazard, ed., Critical Essays on William Blake (Boston, MA: G.K. Hall & Co., 1991), pp. 90-110.

Whitehead, Fred.  "William Blake and Radical Tradition", in: Rudich, Norman, ed., Weapons of Criticism: Marxism in America and the Literary Tradition (Palo Alto, CA: Ramparts Press, 1976), pp. 191-214.

JOURNALS

Larrissey, Edward.  "Blake and Ideology", Red Letters [Communist Party Literature Journal, London], no. 8, 1978, pp. 63-66.

Note: This bibliography is based solely on the books in my collection, not on the critical literature as a whole, and not even including my vast collection of photocopied journal articles.  Also please keep in mind that a strictly political angle on Blake does not cover the full range of Blake.  More to the point, one must remember that even Blake's cosmology/philosophical system has a political dimension, in that Blake opposes not only empiricism and state religion, but the entire heritage of Western philosophy, polite learning, and all of orthodox religion.

Compiled 30 July 1997. Updates to be appended.

Comparative Studies of William Blake & Other Modern Writers & Thinkers:
A Bibliography for a Study in Ideology

English & German Romanticism & Philosophy: A Bibliography

William Blake Study Guide