David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright and literary critic, one of the key writers of the early twentieth century, most famous for his criticism of rationalism and industrialization. Written after World War I and set in postwar England and Italy, the novel "Aaron's Rod" tells the story of Aaron Sisson, is a union official in the coal mines, who flees to Italy from the terrible state of England and his failing marriage. The book raises questions about social and political institutions of Lawrence's times and touches upon the issues of the ideologies that formed the Western World.