Utopias A Brief History from Ancient Writings

This brief history connects the past and present of utopian thought, from the first utopias in ancient Greece, right up to present day visions of cyberspace communities and paradise. Explores the purpose of utopias, what they reveal about the societies who conceive them, and how utopias have changed over the centuries Unique in including both non-Western and Western visions of utopia Explores the many forms utopias have taken prophecies and oratory, writings, political movements, world's fairs, physical communities and also discusses high-tech and cyberspace visions for the first time The first book to analyze the implicitly utopian dimensions of reform crusades like Technocracy of the 1930s and Modernization Theory of the 1950s, and the laptop classroom initiatives of recent years

Howard P. Segal is Adelaide Alan Bird Professor of History at the University of Maine, where he has taught since 1986. He received his MA and PhD from Princeton University. His previous books include Technological Utopianism in American Culture (1985, 2005), Future Imperfect: The Mixed Blessings of Technology in America (1994), Technology in America: A Brief History (1989, 1999, with Alan Marcus), and Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford's Village Industries (2005). He also reviews for among other publications, Nature and the Times Higher Education.

Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Nature of Utopias	p. 5
Utopias Defined	p. 5
Utopias Differ from both Millenarian Movements and Science Fiction	p. 8
Utopias' Spiritual Qualities are Akin to those of Formal Religions	p. 9
Utopias' Real Goal: Not Prediction of the Future but Improvement of the Present	p. 12
How and When Utopias are Expected to be Established	p. 13
The Variety of Utopias	p. 16
The Global Nature of Utopias: Utopias are Predominantly but not Exclusively Western	p. 16
The Several Genres of Utopianism: Prophecies and Oratory, Political Movements, Communities, Writings, World's Fairs, Cyberspace	p. 24
The European Utopias and Utopians and Their Critics	p. 47
The Pioneering European Visionaries and Their Basic Beliefs: Plato's Republic and More's Utopia	p. 47
Forging the Connections Between Science, Technology, and Utopia	p. 50
The Pansophists	p. 53
The Prophets of Progress: Condorcet, Saint-Simon, and Comte	p. 55
Dissenters from the Ideology of Unadulterated Scientific and Technological Progress	p. 58
The Expansive Visions of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier	p. 60
The "Scientific" Socialism of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels	p. 66
The American Utopias and Utopians and Their Critics	p. 74
America as Utopia: Potential and Fulfillment	p. 74
The Pioneering American Visionaries and their Basic Beliefs in America as Land of Opportunity	p. 78
America as "Second Creation": Enthusiasm and Disillusionment	p. 81
Growing Expectations of Realizing Utopia in the United States and Europe	p. 89
Later American Technological Utopians: John Macnie Through Harold Loeb	p. 89
Utopia Within Sight: The American Technocracy Crusade	p. 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	p. 99
On Misreading Frankenstein: How Scientific and Technological Advances have Changed Traditional Criticisms of Utopianism in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries	p. 123
Utopia Reconsidered	p. 139
The Growing Retreat from Space Exploration and Other Megaprojects	p. 139
Nuclear Power: Its Rise, Fall, and Possible Revival-Maine Yankee as a Case Study	p. 142
The Declining Belief in Inventors, Engineers, and Scientists as Heroes; in Experts as Unbiased; and in Science and Technology as Social Panaceas	p. 157
Contemporary Prophets for Profit: The Rise and Partial Fall of Professional Forecasters	p. 160
Post-colonial Critiques of Western Science and Technology as Measures of "Progress"	p. 169
The Resurgence of Utopianism	p. 186
The Major Contemporary Utopians and Their Basic Beliefs	p. 186
Social Media: Utopia at One's Fingertips	p. 193
Recent and Contemporary Utopian Communities	p. 194
The Star Trek Empire: Science Fiction Becomes Less Escapist	p. 199
Edutopia: George Lucas and Others	p. 203
The Fate of Books and Newspapers: Utopian and Dystopian Aspirations	p. 217
The Future of Utopias and Utopianism	p. 234
The "Scientific and Technological Plateau" and the Redefinition of Progress	p. 234
Conclusion: Why Utopia Still Matters Today and Tomorrow	p. 241
Further Reading	p. 261
Index	p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Utopias A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities

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