The scope and significance of William Thomas Thornton's literary works

Abstract

Following the publication in the 1840s of two political economy tracts, William T. Thornton had come to be seen as an influential social reformer and economic commentator. The 1850s were marked, in turn, by the publication of three books of verse. These works form a bridge linking his political tracts of the 1840s to the economic and philosophical works he penned in the 1860s and 1870s. Thornton's poetical compositions also serve to illustrate how the creative work of an economist can shed light on matters treated only cursorily in his earlier political tracts and later economic treatises.