John Ruskin, Prophet of Disaster in “Traffic”

In 1864 the citizens of Bradford invited John Ruskin, a then much feared and admired art critic, to a conference, and asked him to give them his opinion about the building of a new Wool Exchange. John Ruskin responded by launching into a long speech on the worrying physical and moral state of the city and the nation as a whole, which was to be published three years later as “Traffic,” in a collection of essays entitled The Crown of Wild Olive. “Traffic” is a stern warning and a fiery description of the terrible danger threatening the Bradford people and the country at large, unless drastic changes are adopted. Though Ruskin was obviously trying to frighten the industrial middle classes whose overconfident attitude he despised and to underline the artistic and social decline of the Victorian civilization, his speech can also be read as the expression of his own fears in front of an architectural decadence which he considered as an ominous sign, and of his belief that massive industrialization would bring about chaos. Such themes are recurrent in his works, while the impact of “Traffic” can also be examined in the context of the dramatic urban development, which alarmed many of his contemporaries.