Utopian England: Community Experiments 1900-1945

by Hardy; Dennis

• ISBN13: 9780419246701
• ISBN10: 0419246703
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-09-05
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines the contrasting ideologies and fortunes of utopian community experiments in the early twentieth century. The idea of creating a perfect society led to practical community experiments varying widely in ideology and form. The book starts by locating this episode of utopian ideas and community experiments within an existing tradition, drawing attention especially to nineteenth century precedents. Evidence of continuity is then balanced by the unique circumstances of the early twentieth century - a time of turbulence and transition - and the distinctive pattern of utopianism that emerged. An assessment is made of the overall impact of these experiments: were they marginal to society or did they provide important markers in a changing world? Finally, at the start of a new millennium, the question is asked as to why utopianism retains a hold on contemporary thought.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
Quest for Perfection	1	(19)
Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained	1	(10)
A Very Unusual Period	11	(5)
Shifting Boundaries	16	(4)
The Land of Utopia	20	(35)
England's Grief	20	(9)
Opportunity and Expediency	29	(12)
A Wartime Refuge	41	(14)
Cities in the Sun	55	(54)
The Urban Anti-Christ	55	(5)
Garden City Salvation	60	(6)
Buiding Utopia	66	(9)
New Horizons	75	(9)
City of Friends	84	(13)
Modern Utopia	97	(12)
The Art of Community	109	(54)
Arts and Crafts in the Countryside	109	(21)
Cells of the Good Life	130	(14)
The Dartington Experiment	144	(19)
Sacred Places	163	(40)
Communities of God	164	(7)
God without the State	171	(11)
The Cotswold Bruderhof	182	(12)
Salvation and Renewal	194	(9)
The Politics of Nowhere	203	(30)
Into the Margins	204	(5)
Eminently Practical Visions	209	(5)
Tales of the Chesterbelloc	214	(4)
Kindred Spirits	218	(7)
The Socialism of Small Groups	225	(8)
The Place of Imagination	233	(35)
The Land of Make Believe	233	(7)
The Fiction of Escape	240	(9)
The Devil's Decades	249	(5)
Intellectual Coteries	254	(14)
Twentieth-Century Conundrum	268	(19)
The Experience of Utopia	268	(7)
Comparative Perspectives	275	(5)
The Next Future	280	(7)
Bibliography	287	(14)
Index	301