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Utopia
Ideal worlds imagined
17 entries
The dream of a golden age, first expressed by Hesiod, and philosophical writings such as Plato's Republic, has become a recurring theme in literature. Many have attempted to define the ideal society. For some, the dream has turned into a nightmare, a dystopia. This page includes the best of these speculations.
UtopiaThomas More, 1516 — Mores' work is a fictional travelogue to a country named 'Utopia', which means 'nowhere' in Greek.The New AtlantisFrancis Bacon, 1627 — A short utopian travelogue by the inventor of the scientific method.The City of the SunTommaso Campanella, 1637 — Along with More, Campanella wrote one of the first early modern utopias.Symzonia: Voyage of DiscoveryAdam Seaborn, 1820 — One of the rarest Hollow Earth books: a perilous sea journey to a utopian society in the inner earth, possibly the first American utopian science fiction novel.The RepublicBenjamin Jowett, 1871 — One of the first speculations about a planned society.Erewhon, or Over the RangeSamuel Butler, 1872 — An influential 19th century satiric dystopia.The Communistic Societies of the United StatesCharles Nordhoff, 1875 — Firsthand view of the 19th century US communal living movement, including the Shakers.Looking BackwardsEdward Bellamy, 1888 — Bellamy's classic utopian vision of the year 2000.News from NowhereWilliam Morris, 1891 — William Morris' vision of a socialist England.Unveiling a ParallelAlice Ilgenfritz Jones, 1893 — A trip to Mars, where a strange society which practices equality of the sexes.A Modern UtopiaH.G. Wells, 1909 — Wells' 'novel of ideas' set on a parallel Earth.The Iron HeelJack London, 1909 — Jack London's dystopian vision of a brutal future past.Garden Cities of To-morrowEbenezer Howard, 1902 — A very influential early city planner's vision of the city of the future--which became a very successful reality.HerlandCharlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman, 1906 — Visit a land where women are the only gender.The Story of UtopiasLewis Mumford, 1922 — A survey of the literature of utopias, by a pioneer of city planning.Site copyrightsTerms of Service