The utopians : six attempts to build the perfect society

'neima’s Book, Impeccably Researched And Beautifully Written, Will Be An Inspiration For Anyone Looking To An Alternative Future Today.' - Stella Tillyard, Author Of Aristocrats And The Great Level '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 Of A Radical Romance, Common People And Mrs. Woolf And The Servants The Utopians Is The Remarkable Story Of Six Experimental Communities – Santiniketan-sriniketan In India, Dartington Hall In England, Atarashiki Mura In Japan, The Institute For The Harmonious Development Of Man In France, The Bruderhof In Germany And Trabuco College In America – That Sprang Up In The Aftermath Of The First World War. Each Was Led By Charismatic Figures Who Dreamed Of A New Way Of Living. Rabindranath Tagore, Dorothy And Leonard Elmhirst, Mushanokoji Saneatsu, G. I. Gurdjieff, Eberhard And Emmy Arnold And Gerald Heard All Struggled To Turn Ambitious Ideals Into Reality. They – And Their Fellow Communards – Left Their Jobs, Their Homes And Their Social Circles. They Faced Mockery And Persecution, Penury, Hunger And Discomfort, And Their Own Doubts About Whether Their Efforts To Change Society Would Ever Make A Difference. Anna Neima’s Absorbing And Vivid Account Of These Collectives, From Creation To Collapse, Reveals Them To Be Full Of Eccentric Characters, Outlandish Lifestyles And Unchecked Idealism. They Were Dramatic, Fractious Places Where High Ideals Collided With The Need To Feed The Chickens, Clean The Toilets, Bring Up Squabbling Children And Grow The Grain For The Daily Bread. These Communities Were Small In Scale And Dismissed In Their Time. Yet, A Century Later, Their Influence Still Resonates In Realms As Disparate As Progressive Education, Environmentalism, Medical Research And Mindfulness Training. They Provided, And Continue To Provide, A Rich Store Of Inspiration For Those Who Aspire To Improve The World. Without Them, The Post-war World Would Have Been A Poorer Place. 'Fascinating and richly documented . . . Few books manage to be so informative and so entertaining.' – Sunday Times Santiniketan-Sriniketan in India, Dartington Hall in England, Atarashiki Mura in Japan, the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France, the Bruderhof in Germany and Trabuco College in America: six experimental communities established in the aftermath of the First World War, each aiming to change the world. Anna Neima's The Utopians is an absorbing and vivid account of these collectives and their charismatic leaders and reveals them to be full of eccentric characters, outlandish lifestyles and unchecked idealism. Dismissed and even mocked in their time, yet, a century later, their influence still resonates in progressive education, environmentalism, medical research and mindfulness training. Without such inspirational experiments in how to live, post-war society would have been a poorer place. ' Thanks to Neima's rigorous research, each chapter offers something new.' – Spectator ' Neima ranges with impressive confidence across the world'. – Literary Review CONTENTS List of Illustrations Map INTRODUCTION ‘The Art of Living Together in Harmony’ ONE ‘Life in its Completeness’ on the Plains of Bengal Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan-Sriniketan TWO ‘A New Manor Which May Be the Unit of the New England’ Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst’s Dartington Hall THREE Self-Realization in the Mountains of Japan Mushanokōji Saneatsu’s Atarashiki Mura FOUR The Forest Philosophers of Fontainebleau G. I. Gurdjieff’s Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man FIVE Seeking the Kingdom of God in Rural Germany Eberhard and Emmy Arnold’s Bruderhof SIX California Dreaming Gerald Heard’s Trabuco College “CONCLUSION Radically Different Ways of Being Acknowledgements Bibliography Notes Index Plate Section The absorbing story of six utopian communities across the world, each of which sprang up in the aftermath of the First World War.