Morris William. A Dream of John Ball

A Dream of John Ball (1888) is a novel by English author William Morris about the English peasants' revolt of 1381 and the rebel John Ball. Like the novel's close contemporary - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) by Mark Twain - it describes a dream and time travel encounter between the medieval and modern worlds.
Unlike Twain's novel, which depicted early-Medieval England as a violent and chaotic Dark Age, Morris depicts the Middle Ages in a positive light, seeing it as a golden, if brief, period when peasants were prosperous and happy and guilds protected workers from exploitation.
Modern appraisal has been mixed, with some seeing Morris as an early hero of the labour movement, and others of him catering to champagne socialism.
More importantly Morris presented an alternative view of the Middle Ages, being a positive and progressive period, an unusual position in the 19th century.
The story was originally published in serial format in The Commonweal, November 13, 1886 - January 22, 1887.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).