William Blake was a revolutionary artist whose working-class background informed his perspectives on contemporary social theory. Blake had complex understanding of how the world shapes us, how some must accept it while others might rail against it. This talk will provide a biographical background on William Blake and his partner Catherine (who was an integral part of his art and life). We’ll look at how Blake was a product of his time, late 18th century London. It will explore how he was influenced by the early feminist writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, the sociology of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Non-Conformist philosophy of Reverend Richard Price. Although Blake is best known for his poetry, this talk will emphasise his art and how it visualised the impact of social forces upon humanity. Blake’s powerful, emancipatory art has been historically neutralised as the ramblings of a ‘madman’. However, in recent years scholars have begun to argue Blake was an incisive mind who offered nuanced ideas of social freedom. At the end of the talk, we’ll consider what Blake might teach us about freedom today.