Utopias : A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities (Hardcover)

Preface xi

Introduction 1

1 The Nature of Utopias 5

Utopias Defined 5

Utopias Differ from both Millenarian Movements and Science Fiction 8

Utopias' Spiritual Qualities are Akin to those of Formal Religions 9

Utopias'Real Goal: Not Prediction of the Future but Improvement of the Present 12

How and When Utopias are Expected to be Established 13

2 The Variety of Utopias 16

The Global Nature of Utopias: Utopias are Predominantly but not Exclusively Western 16

The Several Genres of Utopianism: Prophecies and Oratory, Political Movements, Communities, Writings, World's Fairs, Cyberspace 24

3 The European Utopias and Utopians and Their Critics 47

The Pioneering European Visionaries and Their Basic Beliefs: Plato's Republic and More's Utopia 47

Forging the Connections Between Science, Technology, and Utopia 50

The Pansophists 53

The Prophets of Progress: Condorcet, Saint-Simon, and Comte 55

Dissenters from the Ideology of Unadulterated Scientific and Technological Progress: Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and William Morris 58

The Expansive Visions of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier 60

The "Scientific"Socialism of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 66

4 The American Utopias and Utopians and Their Critics 74

America as Utopia: Potential and Fulfillment 74

The Pioneering American Visionaries and their Basic Beliefs in America as Land of Opportunity: John Adolphus Etzler, Thomas Ewbank, and Mary Griffith 78

America as "Second Creation": Enthusiasm and Disillusionment 81

5 Growing Expectations of Realizing Utopia in the United States and Europe 89

Later American Technological Utopians: John Macnie Through Harold Loeb 89

Utopia Within Sight: The American Technocracy Crusade 96

Utopia Within Reach: "The Best and the Brightest"—Post-World War II Science and Technology Policy in the United States and Western Europe and the Triumph of the Social Sciences 99

On Misreading Frankenstein: How Scientific and Technological Advances have Changed Traditional Criticisms of Utopianism in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 123

6 Utopia Reconsidered 139

The Growing Retreat from Space Exploration and Other Megaprojects 139

Nuclear Power: Its Rise, Fall, and Possible Revival—Maine Yankee as a Case Study 142

The Declining Belief in Inventors, Engineers, and Scientists as Heroes; in Experts as Unbiased; and in Science and Technology as Social Panaceas 157

Contemporary Prophets for Profit: The Rise and Partial Fall of Professional Forecasters 160

Post-colonial Critiques of Western Science and Technology as Measures of "Progress"169

7 The Resurgence of Utopianism 186

The Major Contemporary Utopians and Their Basic Beliefs 186

Social Media: Utopia at One's Fingertips 193

Recent and Contemporary Utopian Communities 194

The Star Trek Empire: Science Fiction Becomes Less Escapist 199

Edutopia: George Lucas and Others 203

The Fate of Books and Newspapers: Utopian and Dystopian Aspirations 217

8 The Future of Utopias and Utopianism 234

The "Scientific and Technological Plateau"and the Redefinition of Progress 234

Conclusion: Why Utopia Still Matters Today and Tomorrow 241

Further Reading 261

Index 269