Journey through Utopia: A Critical Examination of Imagined Worlds in Western Literature (Freedom Press)

Journey through Utopia is a richly detailed and critically compelling examination of utopian literature, beginning with Plato’s Republic and continuing through to Huxley’s Brave New World. Utopias have been penned with diverse intentions: some as pictures of an ideal society, some as blueprints for action, yet others, especially in times of severe censorship, as covert criticisms of existing conditions. Marie Louise Berneri exposes the dark shadow that lingers above most utopian works by emphasizing the intolerant and authoritarian nature of these visions, and she warns of the doom that awaits those foolish enough to put their trust in an ordered and regimented world. This new edition is framed with an introduction from Matthew S. Adams that situates Berneri’s work in the context of her life, and concludes with an afterword from Rhiannon Firth that extends Berneri’s analysis into contemporary utopias. Journey through Utopia is a necessary companion, and in many cases an antidote, to imagined fictions from antiquity to the present. In the shadow of the Vietnam War, a significant part of an entire generation refused their assigned roles in the American century. Some took their revolutionary politics to the streets, others decided simply to turn away, seeking to build another world together, outside the state and the market. West of Eden charts the remarkable flowering of communalism in the 1960s and 70s, fueled by a radical rejection of the Cold War corporate deal, utopian visions of a peaceful green planet, the new technologies of sound and light, and the ancient arts of ecstatic release. The book focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area and its hinterlands, which have long been creative spaces for social experiment. Haight-Ashburys gift economyits free clinic, concerts, and street theatreand Berkeleys liberated zonesSproul Plaza, Telegraph Avenue, and Peoples Parkwere embedded in a wider network of producer and consumer co-ops, food conspiracies, and collective schemes. Using memoir and flashbacks, oral history and archival sources, West of Eden explores the deep historical roots and the enduring, though often disavowed, legacies of the extraordinary pulse of radical energies that generated forms of collective life beyond the nuclear family and the world of private consumption, including the contradictions evident in such figures as the guru/predator or the hippie/entrepreneur. There are vivid portraits of life on the rural communes of Mendocino and Sonoma, and essays on the Black Panther communal households in Oakland, the latter-day Diggers of San Francisco, the Native American occupation of Alcatraz, the pioneers of live/work space for artists, and the Bucky dome as the iconic architectural form of the sixties. Due to the prevailing amnesiapartly imposed by official narratives, partly self-imposed in the aftermath of defeat West of Eden is not only a necessary act of reclamation, helping to record the unwritten stories of the motley generation of communards and antinomians now passing, but is also intended as an offering to the coming generation who will find here, in the rubble of the twentieth century, a past they can useindeed one they will needin the passage from the privations of commodity capitalism to an ample life in common. Annotation This Account Charts The Rise Of Communalism In The 60s And 70s, As Thousands Turned Their Backs On Their Assigned Roles In Order To Build Another World Together. Using Memoir And Flashbacks, The Quest To Find An Alternative To The Traditional Nuclear Family And The Consumptive Way Of Living Is Illuminated. Pt. I. Context. California Communes : A Venerable Tradition / By Timothy Miller -- Conviviality And Perspicacity : Evaluating 1960s Communitarianism / By Michael William Doyle -- The Counterculture As Commons : The Ecology Of Community In The Bay Area / By Jeff Lustig -- The Commune As Badlands As Utopia As Autonomous Zone / By Jesse Drew -- Pt. Ii. The City. Bulldozers In Utopia : Open Land, Outlaw Territory, And The Code Wars / By Felicity D. Scott -- The Dome And The Shack : The Dialectics Of Hippie Enlightenment / By Simon Sadler -- Occupied Alcatraz : Native American Community And Activism / By Janferie Stone -- Communalism And The Black Panther Party In Oakland, California / By Robyn C. Spencer -- Magus Of The Counterculture : Ramón Sender Talks With Iain Boal -- Pt. Iii. The Country. The Albion Nation : Communes On The Mendocino Coast / By Cal Winslow -- Our Bodies, Our Communal Selves / By Janferie Stone -- Pt. Iv. Legacies. Green Gold And The American Way / By Ray Raphael -- Counterculture, Cyberculture, And The Third Culture : Reinventing Civilization, Then And Now / By Lee Worden -- Caught On The Hop Of History : Communes And Communards On The Canvas Of '68 / By Michael Watts -- Epilogue / By Cal Winslow. Edited By Iain Boal ... [et Al.]. Editor: Iain Boal, Janferie Stone, Michael Watts, Cal Winslow. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Combining dazzling speculation with a profoundly humanist vision, Kim Stanley Robinson is known as not only the most literary but also the most progressive (read “radical”) of today's top rank SF authors. His bestselling Mars Trilogy tells the epic story of the future colonization of the red planet, and the revolution that inevitably follows. The Years of Rice and Salt is based on a devastatingly simple idea: If the medieval plague had wiped out all of Europe, what would our world look like today? His novel Galileo's Dream is a stunning combination of historical drama and far-flung space opera, in which the ten dimensions of the universe itself are rewoven to ensnare history's most notorious torturers. “The Lucky Strike,” the classic and controversial story Robinson has chosen for PM's Outspoken Authors series, begins on a lonely Pacific island, where a crew of untested men are about to take off in an untried aircraft with a deadly payload that will change our world forever. Until something goes wonderfully wrong ... Plus: “A Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions,” in which Robinson dramatically deconstructs “alternate history” to explore what might have been if things had gone differently over Hiroshima that day. As with all Outspoken Author books, there is a deep interview and autobiography: at length, in-depth, no-holds-barred, and all-bets-off: an extended tour though the mind and work, the history and politics of our Outspoken Author. Surprises are promised.

combining Dazzling Speculation With A Profoundly Humanist Vision, This Astounding Alternate History Tale Presents A Dramatic Encounter With Destiny Wrapped Around A Simple Yet Provocative Premise: The Terrifying Question Of What Might Have Happened If The Fateful Flight Over Hiroshima Had Gone A Bit Differently. An Extensive Interview With The Author, Offering Insight Into His Fiction And Philosophies, Is Also Included.

publishers Weekly

hugo-winning Novelist Robinson (galileo’s Dream) Began His Career With Short Fiction. “the Lucky Strike,” A Novelette First Published In 1984, Posits An Alternate History In Which The Enola Gay Crashes On A Test Run Before Dropping The First Atomic Bomb. Replacement Bombardier Capt. Frank January Deliberately Misses Hiroshima, But The Japanese Analyze The Explosions And Surrender Anyway. January Is Executed For Disobeying Orders, Becoming A Martyr Who Inspires Total Nuclear Disarmament By 1956. Robinson’s Skill With Human Drama Lends Credibility To An Otherwise Wildly Optimistic Scenario. The Volume Also Includes A Short Essay On Whether History Follows Laws Akin To Physics, And An Interview With Robinson Conducted By Fellow Radical Sf Author Terry Bisson. This Stimulating Little Chapbook Would Work Very Well As A Basis For Classroom Debate On Speculative Fiction, History, Or The Notion Of Free Will. (mar.)

"In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, a large portion of the population had become disenchanted with the American way of life that they did not feel they belonged to. While some openly revolted in the streets, others took to turning away from the mainstream and headed toward a new world. Utopian visions, manifesting themselves in the form of communes, were aimed at breaking the bonds of capitalism, big business, and the reigning oligarchy and were popping up throughout the country. The San Francisco Bay Area was the hotbed of these communes, and from the Height-Ashbury in San Francisco, east to Berkeley's protest hub at Sproul Plaza, and south to Oakland's Black Panther's communal households, this is an exploration of this unique cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. The history and vision of communal living is investigated in a series of essays aimed at explaining just what these communes were, how lives were lived within them, and what their goals entailed"--Provided by publisher.

Seeking to reclaim a history that has remained largely ignored by historians, this dramatic and stirring account examines each of the definitive American cooperative movements for social change—farmer, union, consumer, and communalist—that have been all but erased from collective memory. With an expansive sweep and breathtaking detail, this scholarly yet eminently readable chronicle follows the American worker from the colonial workshop to the modern mass-assembly line, from the family farm to the corporate hierarchy, ultimately painting a vivid panorama of those who built the United States and those who will shape its future. This second edition contains a new introduction by Ishmael Reed, a new preface by the author that discusses cooperatives in the Great Recession of 2008 and their future in the 21st century, and a new chapter on the role co-ops played in the food revolution of the 1970s.

In this title, originally published in 1950, the author has set out to give a description and a critical assessment of the most important (not necessarily the most famous) Utopian writings since Plato first gave, in his Republic, a literary form to the dreams of a Golden Age and of ideal societies which had doubtless been haunting man since the beginning of the conscious discussion of social problems. It is more than a mere compilation and criticism of Utopias, it brings out in a striking way the close and fateful relationship between Utopian thought and social reality, and takes its place among the important books which had appeared in the previous few years, warning us, from various points of view, of the doom that awaits those who are foolish enough to put their trust in an ordered and regimented world. " ... Documents the multigenerational struggle of the American working people for social justice from the colonial workshop to the modern mass-assembly line, ultimately painting a vivid panorama of those who built the United States and those who will shape its future. John Curl, with over forty years of experience as both an active member and historian of cooperatives, presents the definitive history from below of cooperative America."--Back cover "Focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area and hinterlands, with a deep history and rich legacy of cooperative schemes, West of Eden uses interviews and historical research to present vivid portraits of the rural communes of Mendocino and Sonoma, the Black Panther households in Oakland, the Diggers of Haight-Ashbury, the Native American occupation of Alcatraz, and the hippies' love affair with the Bucky dome."--Back cover Marie Louise Berneri 1918-1949 biographical note -- Introduction to the 2019 edition / Matthew S. Adams -- Foreword / George Woodcock -- Introduction -- 1. Utopias of antiquity -- 2. Utopias of the renaissance -- 3. Utopias of the English Revolution -- 4. Utopias of the Enlightenment -- 5. Utopias of the nineteenth century -- 6. Modern utopias -- Bibliography -- Afterword / Rhiannon Firth. THE LUCKY STRIKE, the classic and controversial story Robinson has chosen for PM's new Outspoken Authors series, begins on a lonely Pacific island, where a crew of untested men are about to take off in an untried aircraft with a deadly payload that will change our world forever. Until something goes wonderfully wrong .. Summary:Combining dazzling speculation with a profoundly humanist vision, this astounding alternate history tale presents a dramatic encounter with destiny wrapped around a simple yet provocative premise: the terrifying question of what might have happened if the fateful flight over Hiroshima had gone a bit differently