Utopias explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Utopia as Progress and Escape

  The chapter catalogs utopias that envision ideal societies as both progressive advancements and escapes from contemporary social ills, such as Hertzka's Freeland and Hudson's A Crystal Age.

• Critique of Industrialism

  Several works, including Morris's News from Nowhere and Bellamy's Looking Backward, implicitly critique industrial capitalism by proposing alternative social and economic structures.

• Community and Social Harmony

  Many utopias listed, such as Andreae's Christianopolis and Fourier's phalanx, emphasize communal living and social harmony as foundational principles.

Characters to notice

• Plato

  Author of The Republic, Critias, Statesman, and The Laws, foundational texts of utopian thought.

• Sir Thomas More

  Author of Utopia (1516), the seminal work that gave the genre its name.

• Johann Valentin Andreae

  Author of Christianopolis (1619), an ideal state of the 17th century.

• Francis Bacon

  Author of The New Atlantis (1627), a utopian vision of scientific advancement.

• Tommaso Campanella

  Author of The City of the Sun (1637), a philosophical utopia.

• Charles Fourier

  Author of Traité de l'Association domestique agricole and Le Nouveau Monde Industriel, proposing the phalanx system.

• Étienne Cabet

  Author of Voyage en Icarie (1845), a utopian novel about a nationalized state.

• Edward Bellamy

  Author of Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897), influential American utopian works.

Key passages

• “Utopias Plato (427 BC −347 BC ). The Republic . Translated with notes and essays by Benjamin Jowett. Oxford: 1894. See also Plato's “ Critias ” and “ Statesman ” in the same edition. The Laws , which is a more detailed attempt to work out the details of a good polity, is so lacking in Plato’s original inspiration that, but for Aristotle’s allusion to it, one would promptly take it for the work of another hand.”

  Plato's Republic, Critias, and Statesman are foundational utopian texts, while The Laws is considered a less inspired, more detailed work on governance.

  Establishes Plato's central role in utopian literature and critiques The Laws as possibly inauthentic.

• “More, Sir Thomas (1478⁠–⁠1535). Utopia . Published originally in Latin in 1516. There are numerous modern editions. See Ideal Commonwealths , edited by Henry Morley.”

  Thomas More's Utopia, first published in Latin in 1516, is a key text in the utopian tradition, with many modern editions available.

  Highlights the enduring influence of More's work.

• “Fourier, Charles François Marie (1772⁠–⁠1837). Traité de l’Association domestique agricole . 2 vols. 1822. Le Nouveau Monde Industriel . 2 vols. 1829. See also Albert Brisbane in his General Introduction to the Social Sciences (Fourier's “Social Destinies”), and Selections from the Works of Fourier , translated by Julia Franklin, with an introduction by Charles Gide, London: 1901.”

  Charles Fourier's major works on association and the industrial world are listed, along with secondary sources by Brisbane and Franklin.

  Documents Fourier's contributions to utopian socialism and the phalanx concept.

• “Bellamy, Edward (1850⁠–⁠1898). Looking Backward . Boston: 1888. Equality; Boston: 1897. Hertzka, Theodor (1815-?). Freeland: A Social Anticipation . First edition published in German, 1889; English translation published by the British Freeland Association in 1891. A Visit to Freeland, or the New Paradise Regained . Translation published by the above Association, London: 1894. The first work lays the foundations for the utopia; the second is the ideal commonwealth in action.”

  Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward and Equality, along with Theodor Hertzka's Freeland works, are presented as key late-19th-century utopias that envision ideal societies.

  Shows the transition from theoretical utopias to more action-oriented visions.