Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne

Writing to Thomas Dixon, a cork-cutter in Sunderland, John Ruskin turns the laws of work into a discussion of how society should be organised. These twenty-five letters consider honest labour, fair exchange, cooperation and the responsibilities of employers and workers. Ruskin distinguishes sharing a firm's profits from a broader cooperation among businesses and nations, arguing that trade should serve common needs rather than rivalry.

Education gives the argument a practical focus. Ruskin proposes different studies for children destined for city, country or coastal life, then confronts the difficulty of preparing educated young people for necessary manual occupations. His views combine concern for working people's comfort and learning with an explicit attachment to rank and authority. Readers interested in social thought can follow the tensions within these proposals, as a personal correspondence moves between economic arrangements, moral habits, the arts and everyday work.