Physical description

Hard cover book. The Crown of Wild Olive
Author: John Ruskin
Publisher: George Allen
Date: 1890
Further Information: Green Cloth hardcover with lettering and patterning to spine in gilt. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

non-fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on the spine with the typed text PAT 824 RUS
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service

Summary

The Crown of Wild Olive: Four Lectures on Industry and War, published by George Allen, is the 1890 fifth edition. The book is a collection of lectures on work, commerce and warfare. Ruskin examines the moral and social effects of industrialisation and capitalism, questions the true value of labour, and asks society to rethink how it directs human effort. The Introduction opens with a lament for a once-lovely stretch of English countryside, which he treats as a sign of the moral cost of industrial disregard for nature and for people. The first three lectures are usually known as ‘Work’, ‘Traffic’ and ‘War’. They were first given in 1864–65 to audiences at Bradford and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. The central ideas are that work is only worthwhile when it serves real human life, and that a commercial culture that worships money corrupts taste and morals. The Woolwich lecture treats war as a kind of test of a nation’s character, which was a controversial view at the time. The work’s title, ‘wild olive’, refers to the humble, honourable reward of public service, set against the ‘gold’ that Ruskin believed was being pursued at the time.