Jim Spates, PhD., Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, has been studying the legacy of John Ruskin for the last quarter century, authoring a book and numerous articles on Ruskin’s life and work, as well as lecturing widely on these subjects in the UK and North America. Recently, he has written Ruskin’s Sexuality clearing Ruskin of all of the charges of sexual neurosis or misconduct that have been irresponsibly leveled against him.
At present, he is working on a modern rendering of Ruskin’s classic work on social and economic life, Unto this Last (complete text), and he also maintains a blog, Why Ruskin?—dedicated to making known Ruskin’s continuing importance to the troubled world in which we live.
Related material
- How I found Ruskin
- James L. Spates’s list of of Ruskin’s recommendations for a sane, just society
- Ruskin—The Forgotten Legacy in America
- Ruskin’s moss & the beauty of the earth
- Ruskin’s Shakespeare
- Ruskin in Milan, 1862: A Chapter from “Dark Star,” Helen Gill Viljoen's Unpublished Biography of John Ruskin (ed. James L. Spates)
Last modified 4 July 2019