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{{Short description|Essay critical of economics by John Ruskin}}{{italic title}}{{Critique of political economy sidebar}}'''''Unto This Last''''' is an essay [[Critique of economy|critical of economics]] by [[John Ruskin]], who published the first chapter between August and December 1860 in the monthly journal ''[[Cornhill Magazine]]'' in four articles.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Radio|first=Sveriges|title=John Ruskin: En brittisk 1800-talsaristokrat för vår tid? - OBS|url=https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1244376|access-date=2021-11-15|website=sverigesradio.se|language=sv}}</ref>
== Title ==
[[File:Teachings of Jesus 16 of 40. the eleventh hour labourers. Jan Luyken etching. Bowyer Bible.gif|thumb|right|''The eleventh hour labourers'', etching by [[Jan Luyken]] based on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard]]The title is a quotation from the [[Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard]]:▼
{{quotation|I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.|[[Matthew 20]] ([[King James Version]])}}The "last" are the eleventh hour labourers, who are paid as if they had worked the entire day. Rather than discuss the contemporary religious
▲[[File:Teachings of Jesus 16 of 40. the eleventh hour labourers. Jan Luyken etching. Bowyer Bible.gif|thumb|right|''The eleventh hour labourers'', etching by [[Jan Luyken]] based on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard]]
The essay begins with the following verses, taken from Matthew 20:13 and Zechariah 11:12 respectively (in the King James Version):<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160305053348/http://muff.uffs.net/skola/dejum/ruskin/texts/unto-this-last/unto_this_last.pdf ''Unto This Last'' by John Ruskin]</ref>
<blockquote><poem>
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==
Ruskin says himself that the articles were "very violently criticized", forcing the publisher to stop its publication after four months.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Radio |first=Sveriges |title=John Ruskin: En brittisk 1800-talsaristokrat för vår tid? - OBS |url=https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1244376 |access-date=2021-11-15 |website=sverigesradio.se |language=sv}}</ref> Subscribers sent protest letters, but Ruskin countered the attack and published the four articles in a book in May 1862. One of the few that received the book positively was [[Thomas Carlyle]], whom Ruskin said had "led the way" for ''Unto This Last'' with his critique of ''[[laissez-faire]]'' [[political economy]] as the "[[Dismal Science]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruskin |first=John |url=https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/ruskin/17Untothislast.pdf |title=Unto this Last, Munera Pulveris and Time and Tide with other writings on Political Economy (1860-1873) |publisher=George Allen |year=1905 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=E. T. |editor-link=E. T. Cook |series=The Complete Works of John Ruskin |volume=XVII |location=London |pages=xxxiv |editor-last2=Wedderburn |editor-first2=Alexander}}</ref> Carlyle wrote to Ruskin:<blockquote>I have read your paper with exhilaration, exultation, often with laughter, with bravissimo! Such a thing flung suddenly into half a million dull British heads on the same day, will do a great deal of good. . . . my joy is great to find myself henceforth in a minority of two, at any rate. The Dismal-Science people will object that their science expressly abstracts itself from moralities, from etc., etc.; but what you say and show is incontrovertibly true—that no 'science,' worthy of men (and not worthier of dogs or of devils), has a right to call itself 'political economy,' or can exist at all, except mainly as a fetid nuisance and a public poison, on other terms than those you shadow out to it for the first time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruskin |first=John |url=https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/ruskin/17Untothislast.pdf |title=Unto this Last, Munera Pulveris and Time and Tide with other writings on Political Economy (1860-1873) |publisher=George Allen |year=1905 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=E. T. |editor-link=E. T. Cook |series=The Complete Works of John Ruskin |volume=XVII |location=London |pages=xxxii-xxxiii |editor-last2=Wedderburn |editor-first2=Alexander}}</ref></blockquote>The book is cited as an inspiration upon the [[British Labour Party]] in its initial stages, a survey of Labour [[Members of Parliament]] after the party achieved its electoral breakthrough in the [[1906 UK general election]] listing the book as one of their key influences.<ref> Anthony, P.D. (1984), ''John Ruskin's Labour: A Study of Ruskin's Social Theory''. New York: Cambridge.</ref>
''Unto This Last'' had a very important impact on [[Mohandas K. Gandhi|Gandhi]]'s philosophy.<ref>[http://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/humantouch.htm Gandhi's Human Touch<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> He discovered the book in March 1904 through Henry Polak, whom he had met in a [[vegetarian]] restaurant in [[South Africa]]. Polak was sub-editor of the [[Johannesburg]] paper ''The Critic''. Gandhi decided immediately not only to change his own life according to Ruskin's teaching, but also to publish his own newspaper, ''[[Indian Opinion]]'', from a farm where everybody would get the same salary, without distinction of function, race, or nationality. This, for that time, was quite revolutionary. Thus Gandhi created [[Phoenix Settlement]].▼
=== Mahatma Gandhi's paraphrase ===
Mohandas Gandhi translated ''Unto This Last'' into [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] in 1908 under the title of ''[[Sarvodaya]]'' (''Well Being of All''). Valji Govindji Desai translated it back to English in 1951 under the title of ''Unto This Last: A Paraphrase''.<ref name="Unto this last">{{cite book |last= Gandhi |first= M. K. |authorlink= |title= Unto this Last: A paraphrase |url= http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/Unto_This_Last_%E2%80%94_M._K._Gandhi |year= |publisher=Navajivan Publishing House |location= Ahmedabad |language= English|isbn= 81-7229-076-4|format=PDF}}</ref> This last essay can be considered his program on economics, as in ''Unto This Last'', Gandhi found an important part of his social and economic ideas.▼
▲''Unto This Last'' had a very important impact on [[
▲
== See also ==
* [[Illth]]
*[[Grundrisse]]
== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
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== External links ==
* {{ws|[[s:Unto This Last (Ruskin)|Full text from Wikisource]]}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-ruskin/unto-this-last}}
* {{cite book |last=Ruskin |first=John |author-link= John Ruskin |title="Unto this last"; four essays on the first principles of political economy |place= Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent |publisher=George Allen |year=1877 |edition= 2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/untothislastfou01ruskgoog/page/n10/mode/2up |via=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date= 11 November 2020}}
{{John Ruskin}}{{Critique of political economy}}{{Gandhi}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Books about the history of economic thought]]
[[Category:Books by John Ruskin]]
[[Category:Christian
[[Category:Criticisms of economics]]
[[Category:Socialist works]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The Cornhill Magazine]]
[[Category:Critique of political economy]]
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