Utopia e Antiutopia. Wells, Huxley, Orwell.

by Krishan Kumar, Raffaella Baccolini (Editor), Lucia Gunella (Editor)

The dream of a good or perfect society is as old as mankind. But 'utopia', the specifically literary expression of this dream, was invented only in 1516, by Sir Thomas More. From that time onwards, utopia has been a compelling form for the expression of the hopes and fears of western society.

This book is mainly concerned with the latest phase of utopia's history: the period since the 1880s. It considers the utopias and anti-utopias of Edward Bellamy, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and B.F. Skinner. Science and socialism, their promise and their dangers, are the central themes of these works. The final part of the book considers the fate of utopia in the second half of the twentieth century.

Genres: Utopia, History

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Julie]

I thoroughly like this book. In fact, I'm re-reading some sections on Edward Bellamy, social thinker and utopian writer who published his seminal work, Looking Backward, to a sale of 400,000 copies between 1888-1897, during the height of the "Red Scare" in American history. Bellamy enjoyed a huge success from the sale of his book, at a time in American history when socialist ideas were politically an anathema.

Kumar discusses how Bellamy's work expresses the idea of serious social reform in America, at a crucial time where the growing gap between rich, middle class and poor was beginning to be seen, felt and experienced at the turn into 20th century America. One solution by utopian theorists, in an accommodation to the ethos of America's wealth-building propensity coupled with Darwin's evolutionary legacy, was the adoption of a more scientific and evolutionary attitude toward solving social problems. These same social problems that were unleashed by rapid industrialization and then scientifically managed as a response to them, was a critical American social (mal)adaptation. ?

Kumar's discussion about the impact of Bellamy's utopian vision was helpful to me, in the way that makes sense of how American social theorists moved from an agrarian, communitarian vision to a more future-oriented scientific and technocratic angle on the evolutionary development of modern utopia. America's wealth and growing knowledge-based economy was slowly incorporated into the utopian vision rather than shunned. Kumar's explanation of this turning point is clearly written and detailed enough to make you think more about it.

In another chapter, there are discussions on George Orwell, B.F. Skinner and the Skinnerian technique of scientific Behaviorism as an experimental method to realize social shaping. This section on Skinner includes a part that talks about Skinner's utopian experiment at Walden Two where people could apply scientifically learned techniques to the real problem of relations among people in regards to community chores, rules, and child-rearing. I find this just fascinating. Kumar writes well and incorporates the historical backdrop for each utopian theorist, their works and the social import that includes mention of the growing audience for utopian works themselves as a sociological character - amid the American industrial rise to prominence.

Lastly, also included in the chapter on Bellamy, (my favorite chapter) is the discussion about social criticism and how this style of social critique manifests at the turn on the 20th century in American culture as strongly nationalistic and patriotic, and that this sense patriotism serves by Bellamy's own analysis as a 'counterrevolutionary thrust' and push-back against the true revolution going on by way of the growth of monied interests in American politics during the era of the Big Trusts.