The Utopians: Six Attempts to Build the Perfect Society

by Anna Neima

Overview

The absorbing story of six utopian communities across the world, each of which sprang up in the aftermath of the First World War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529023084
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	06/10/2021
Series:	Aziza's Secret Fairy Door , #278
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Anna Neima is a historian with a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She lives in north London with her husband and son. The Utopians is her first book.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Map x-xi

Introduction 'The Art of Living Together in Harmony' 1

1 'Life in its Completeness' on the Plains of Bengal Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan-Sriniketan 13

2 'A New Manor Which May Be the Unit of the New England' Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst's Dartington Hall 47

3 Self-Realization in the Mountains of Japan Mushanokoji Saneatsu's Atarashiki Mura 85

4 The Forest Philosophers of Fontainebleau G. I. Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man 125

5 Seeking the Kingdom of God in Rural Germany Eberhard and Emmy Arnold's Bruderhof 163

6 California Dreaming Gerald Heard's Trabuco College 201

Conclusion Radically Different Ways of Being 231

Acknowledgements 239

Bibliography 241

Notes 261

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

"Deeply interesting and a pleasure to read, The Utopians illuminates the history of “social dreaming” at a time when it has never been more needed.' - Alison Light, author, Mrs. Woolf and the Servants

"Fascinating and richly documented . . . This is Neima’s first book, and should not be her last. She writes with a novelist’s eye for detail and clearly revels in the eccentrics she has to chronicle — Gurdjieff selling sparrows painted yellow, for example, to fund his trek from Russia to France. Few books manage to be so informative and so entertaining." —Sunday Times

"Offers an original perspective on the entire period and a new way of navigating its artistic and ideological upheaval . . . Fascinating . . . by showing how a global crisis can lead people to question tradition and reshape society, the subject remains important to this day." —Spectator

"Ranges with impressive confidence across the world . . . pleasingly non-judgemental and avoids laborious analysis. Reading this book is perhaps the most delightful way to indulge in elite communism in the 21st century, other than being recruited to a Californian tech start-up." —Literary Review

From the Publisher