Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law

In this interdisciplinary study, the social historian E.P. Thompson contends that most of the assumptions scholars have made about William Blake, the thinker and poet, are misleading and unfounded. The learned tradition that later adopted Blake as a canonical author was important only as the tradition against which he worked. Re-examining Blake’s cultural milieu and intellectual background, Thompson brings a richness and clarity to Blake’s poetic language and imagery.