Claeys' book, as the subtitle suggests, intends to be a history of Utopia as a concept. It begins strongly, placing the discussion in the context of the ecology and economic crisis of 21st century capitalism. Claeys cautions that "Utopia struggles to retain its validity" in the face of such prospective disasters. He suggests that it is a "new and soberer utopianism that we might contemplate in 2020" with "rights and identity-based movements" proliferating. These "clinge ever more insecurely to the socially liberal ideal of a grand extension of tolerance to all, and the uplift of the oppressed and exploited". He concludes, "for most utopia, a word again on the lips of many thousands, is coming to mean a reaction to the catastrophes of the present century, and not a revival of the ideals of the past."
Instead Claeys argues that we must look to the radical and dramatic utopias of the past, to understand a future that "may ensure our survival". Thus begins his sweeping history of utopia. He begins with a swift look at religious utopias, including some fascinating material on early Christianity and how that arose out of the idealism of ancient societies. This is followed by Thomas More's Utopia, and a good discussion of the context of this, and then the medieval urban and rural utopian dreams. His discussion of the phenomena of desert island novels, and how they are used to satirise contemporary societies is interesting, as is Claeys' summary of the way that the "discovery" of the New World by European colonists provoked discussion about idealist societies, or places that did things differently in terms of property ownership, matriarchy or idealised cities.
From this he briefly survives attempts to create idealised communes, and the reasons for their failures before tackling the socialist thinkers. I found the coverage of Robert Owen's attempts to create benevolent capitalist factories interesting, though his summary of Marx and Engels is inadequate. He argues that the "utopian quality" of their thought lies in "assumptions about the more robust sociability and continuing sense of self-sacrifice of the working classes" and the "historical inevitability" of socialist revolution. What he misses is the centrality placed by Marx and Engels on the needed for revolutionary to transform both society and those who make the revolution - crudely, and wrongly, suggesting by this that Marx and Engels meant a "cleansing" of the perpetrators of violent revolution. He also falls into the trap that Marx saw Communism as inevitable - rather than seeing it as one potential outcome of class struggle. From here Claeys moves on to discuss the utopianism of modernity, technology and then science fiction.
Readers looking for a quick summary of utopian thought will find many places to branch off from in this book. Unfortunately the format and content meant that much of the book fails to offer the detail that readers will want. Much is simply lists of examples - books, pamphlets and films that fit the particular chapters, and sometimes key thinkers are summarised very briefly and inadequately. On occasion I wondered at his all too brief summaries. It is inaccurate to say that Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is an example of "projecting human evolution millions of a years hence". It might have been more useful and insightful had Claeys listed fewer examples and explored them in more detail.
As such as found the book disappointing and inadequate. I do agree with Claeys' final conclusion that "our ideal world must be very much of our creation", but really that world will not be a utopia, it will be a reality that arises out of contemporary, and historic, struggles. I had hoped to learn more about how radical ideas, utopian dreams or alternate visions, arise out of real concrete situations, instead of felt that this was just a list of those ideas, with little material grounding.
Related Reviews
Paul - Thomas More
Winstanley - The Law of Freedom and Other Writings
Hill - The World Turned Upside Down
Mahamdallie - Crossing The River Of Fire: The Socialism Of William Morris
Engels - Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
Smaje - A Small Farm Future
Gorgut - Poor Man's Heaven: The Land of Cokaygne and other Utopian Visions
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