Utopia

by Merlin Coverley

For more than 2,000 years utopian visionaries have sought to create a blueprint of the ideal society—from Plato to H. G. Wells, from Cloudcuckooland to Shangri-La. The utopian impulse has generated a vast body of work, encompassing philosophy and political theory, classical literature, and science fiction; yet these utopian dreams have often turned to nightmare, as utopia gives way to its dark reflection, dystopia. Taking the reader on a journey through these imaginary worlds, this work charts the progress of utopian ideas from their origins within the classical world to the rebirth of utopian ideals in the Middle Ages. Later we see the emergence of socialist and feminist ideas; while the 20th century was to be dominated by expressions of totalitarian oppression. Today it is claimed that we are witnessing the death of utopia, as increasingly the ideals that give rise to them are undermined or dismissed. These arguments are explored and evaluated here, as are contemporary examples of utopian thought used to demonstrate the enduring relevance of the utopian tradition.

Genres: Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Galatea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick historical overview of some of the most influential pieces of Utopian literature in the Western world.

[Mallol Codony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Està bé així com a resum de textos importants però sembla que només existeixen autors anglos

[Tiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to several periods of Western thought and literature on Utopianism.

[COR · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I bought this book I hoped to learn about the history of Utopianism in a simply laid out and relatively unbiased manner. This is exactly what I got - Coverley takes us through time with a lens focused on utopian visions, giving a substantial analysis of each and providing sources and further reading material. I enjoyed the clear and chronological structure to the book and found it very easy to keep track of the different eras that we were going through.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

When is a utopian paradise really a dystopian hell? I guess it's up to the reader who responds to the author's narrative. This analysis is really quite good. I only wish Coverley covered some more books in this category, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance, Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, B.F. Skinner's Walden II, Ira Levin's This Perfect Day, and Samuel Butler's Erewhon.

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short (176 p), but a competent book about utopias, from The Republic of Plato to the science fiction dystopias of the last years of the XXth century. You can learn about the tendencies of every period of history and the illusions of the utopists. The ideal society of Plato is the nightmare of the XXth century liberals (see Poper's The Open Society and Its Enemies for a critique of Plato's ideas).