He is often included in the anarchist pantheon. I think from these essays that he thought little of anarchism, to call an evil force, capitalism, by that name. Of course maybe he knew something we don't. Anarchists tend to be very effective in their critiques of state socialism, and less in those of capitalism. Of late, more and more, I have wondered if there isn't a secret admiration of capital and its inherent anarchism, among anarchists.
Nothing gets up the hair on our backs like the mention of a socialist, though.
Morris cited past societies as examples of better societies, especially Medieval, with guilds, aristocrats, harmony within social arrangements, and with nature. These allusions were not convincing. In fact, I doubt that it is ever useful, when trying to construct an image of a good society, to look to the past. First, we don't know, second, that then becomes the focus for debate, third, we must imagine from what we have now and what we don't have. But that's a demanding project.