**What's _The Last Utopians_ All About?** At its heart, _The Last Utopians_ is the very first book to really focus on a specific kind of transatlantic utopianism that links together figures like Edward Bellamy, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and then suggests their ideas are still echoing today in what the author calls "lived utopianism". Instead of just looking at utopian novels, the book digs into the lives of these writers and how they actually tried to _live_ their utopian commitments. It's a blend of biography and literary analysis, showing how utopianism wasn't just something they wrote about, but something that truly shaped who they were and what they did. The book covers two main periods: the intense period from the 1880s to about 1915, which was a high point for utopian fiction and speculation in both the United States and Great Britain, and then takes a brief look at contemporary utopianism in these countries. The title itself is a bit thought-provoking, isn't it? It's meant to make you wonder about the place of utopian thinking right now and maybe even get your own utopian imagination working. While utopianism didn't quite regain the prominence it had before World War I, it certainly didn't vanish. The author approaches his subjects with what he calls "sympathetic distance," acknowledging the sometimes-flawed nature of their dreams (like potential authoritarianism, racism, or gender essentialism) but avoiding a dismissive or scolding tone. The goal isn't to point out how much smarter we are today, but to appreciate that these people dared to put their dreams out there, and millions found those visions thrilling. **Meet Some of the "Last Utopians"** So, who are these figures and why focus on them? The book centers on four key writers: Edward Bellamy, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. They were active during a time when utopian fiction had unprecedented success, and utopian speculation was buzzing in intellectual life. Plus, various cultural radicals were experimenting with ways to live out their utopian beliefs. One of the really interesting things the book does, that sets it apart from earlier studies, is bring Edward Carpenter into the conversation about utopianism. Carpenter never wrote a utopian novel in the conventional sense, so studies focusing purely on fiction often leave him out. But _The Last Utopians_ takes a broader view, seeing utopian any text that "proposes and enacts a better order that does not yet exist anywhere". By this measure, a lot of Carpenter's writing, both poetry and prose, can be seen as utopian discourse, celebrating a better order that hadn't arrived yet. Carpenter, who faded from view for a while after his death in 1929, has gotten quite a bit of attention since the 1970s, especially from queer theorists and historians of sexuality, and the book places his ideas about the "intermediate sex" alongside the works of his utopian contemporaries. The book highlights how these writers didn't just _write_ about utopia, they tried to _live_ it. Edward Bellamy, after his huge success with _Looking Backward_, ventured out of his quiet life to support the Nationalist and later Populist movements. William Morris, despite his comfortable background, embraced socialism, spoke on street corners, and even worked as an artisan. Edward Carpenter gave up a prestigious position at Cambridge to work as a lecturer and eventually a market gardener in England's industrial north. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, braved scandal to lecture for Nationalism and women's rights, and later defied norms in her personal life. These are not just dusty literary figures; they were people wrestling with how to make their ideals real in their own lives. **Edward Bellamy and His Orderly Vision** Let's take a closer look at Edward Bellamy, as he's a central figure discussed in the excerpts. Bellamy became incredibly famous almost overnight after the publication of his utopian romance, _Looking Backward_, in 1888. It was a massive bestseller internationally, selling half a million copies in the U.S. and two hundred thousand in Great Britain, and was translated into fifteen languages. It was even called the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the industrial era. _Looking Backward_ is set in the year 2000, and it tells the story of Julian West, a young, wealthy man from 1887 who falls asleep (thanks to a mesmerist for his insomnia) in a hidden chamber in his basement and wakes up over a century later in a totally transformed Boston. He's found by the Leete family, who introduce him to this new world. Bellamy's utopia is based on a comprehensive state socialism where private enterprise is gone. The core institution is the "industrial army," where everyone, men and women, serves from age twenty-one to forty-five, receiving the same salary for life, regardless of age, status, or ability. Everyone is economically equal, leading to the disappearance of poverty, unemployment, and class differences. Crime is eliminated, the legal system withers away, and politics are replaced by efficient administration because, supposedly, there are no significant disagreements in this egalitarian society. Bellamy believed this transformation happened not through violent revolution, but through a peaceful process of evolution. He saw the rise of monopolies and trusts in his own time as a necessary step towards the nationalization of the entire economy. The idea was that society just needed to recognize and work with this evolution. However, the excerpts also highlight the criticisms of Bellamy's vision. To many later readers, especially in the 21st century, his highly regimented state and the idea of an industrial army can seem authoritarian and stifle individualism, looking more like a precursor to Orwell's _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ than a paradise. There's little room for difference or dissent, and the static economic structure seems to lack opportunity for innovation. The lack of political or legal systems means no way to address potential abuses of power or choose between different ideas for change. One critic puts it that Bellamy's "dream of order has eclipsed the human dream of freedom". Despite these criticisms, Bellamy's book resonated deeply with his contemporary readers. They lived through times of severe financial crises, urban slums, rural poverty, child labor, long workdays, and constant labor violence. The idea of a peaceful, tranquil, classless society seemed like a way out of what felt like a lurch towards plutocracy, anarchy, or total destruction. The novel also had a specific appeal to the middle class and seemed to reflect Bellamy's own intense desire for privacy and tranquility. Julian West spends most of his time with the Leete family, who perfectly embody Victorian upper-middle-class norms, and the depiction of communal dining halls and shopping centers emphasizes efficiency and impersonality over social interaction. This focus on private life and the nuclear family contrasts with earlier utopian movements that emphasized communal living and expanded notions of family. Yet, surprisingly, the book also appealed widely to industrial workers and farmers. They seemed to focus on the economic program – the absolute economic equality and the dignity of labor – which made up a large part of the book. Bellamy argued that selling labor in the marketplace was "sordid," and in his utopia, equal pay for everyone elevated work to an act of service to the nation. Status came from military-like honors, not money. The idea of compulsory service in a military-style organization might have been more acceptable to readers familiar with Civil War conscription, and the system offered attractive features like a shorter work week (especially for difficult jobs) and early retirement at forty-five, appealing greatly during the economic depression of the late 19th century. For women, _Looking Backward_ was appealing despite reinforcing some Victorian gender norms (like Mrs. Leete's invisibility and Edith's limited activities). It offered a radical critique of capitalism's sexual double standard, arguing that just as workers shouldn't be dependent on employers, women shouldn't be economically dependent on men. Bellamy, in the voice of Dr. Leete, saw marriage without economic independence as a form of barter, essentially women selling themselves, calling it humiliating even in love matches and worse in others. Bellamy's utopian vision was deeply rooted in his concept of a "Religion of Solidarity". He believed people were naturally good, and that an unjust economic system made them selfish. In the future utopia, cooperation allows people's "social and generous instincts" to flourish. The book suggests that even the wealthiest members of society would willingly give up their privilege for this better system. The novel uses literary devices to make the reader see the world with new eyes. The parable of the coach at the beginning illustrates the injustice of the era's class system, framing everyone, even the privileged, as victims of a system driven by "hunger," which sprung into existence rather than being designed. Julian's dream-return to 19th-century Boston, seeing the city's waste, inefficiency, callous individualism, and wealth-poverty juxtapositions as a journey through Hell, is designed to create "cognitive estrangement" in the reader, making them see the cruelties of their own society as if for the first time. His conversion to the "religion of solidarity" is signaled by his guilt and identification with the poor as "brothers". The ending, where Julian wakes up to find his journey to the year 2000 was a dream but then _really_ wakes up back in the future utopia, is a clever narrative move. His failure to convert his 19th-century friends in the dream reflects Bellamy's own fear that his book might not convince anyone. _Looking Backward_ led to the formation of the Nationalist movement. Initially, Bellamy was hesitant to turn his vision into a political program, disliking the term "socialist" and preferring to appeal to the "cultured and conservative class". He wanted economic reform removed from "beer saloons" and "blatant blasphemous demagogues," appealing to the "sober and morally minded masses". The first Nationalist club in Boston was indeed very respectable, made up of journalists, retired military officers, and literary men, including William Dean Howells. However, the movement soon spread and attracted a more diverse, cross-class group of political and cultural radicals, including feminists and German immigrants. Bellamy himself changed over time, becoming convinced that rapid, transformative change was imminent and turning down lucrative literary opportunities to focus on political activism, even starting a newspaper, _The New Nation_, aimed at a wider audience. Bellamy wrote a sequel, _Equality_, which the sources briefly touch upon. _Equality_ is much longer and less engaging than _Looking Backward_, largely consisting of monologues from Dr. Leete. However, it goes further in advocating for gender equality. While _Looking Backward_ had separate industrial armies for women, _Equality_ envisions women in all professions, including those previously considered "masculine" like machinists, farmers, engineers, and iron workers. Dr. Leete critiques the "triple yoke" subjugating 19th-century women: class rule, rule by individual men (husbands/fathers), and a "slave code" of gendered behavior that forced women to repress their individuality to attract male providers. The book criticizes mainstream women's movements for not challenging women's economic subordination enough. Unfortunately, _Equality_ takes a step back on race. Despite Bellamy's claim in _The New Nation_ that Nationalism was "color-blind," Dr. Leete in _Equality_ accepts racial segregation as a concession to "bigoted local prejudices," implying that utopia, at least in the South, would be whites-only. This decision was likely influenced by Bellamy's desire to gain support from southern Populists. Bellamy died in 1898, and while his influence was widely acknowledged, many saw it as belonging to the past. However, _Looking Backward_ continued to have a significant impact. It spurred a flood of utopian fiction in the years after its publication, moving the genre away from geographical travel tales towards time travel and science fiction, emphasizing that utopia was achievable through human effort. It also appealed to those who preferred evolutionary change over revolutionary violence. Bellamy's ideas influenced British Fabian socialists like Ebenezer Howard, American figures like Eugene Debs and Upton Sinclair, and even New Deal intellectuals in the 1930s. Remarkably, Martin Luther King Jr. was introduced to _Looking Backward_ in the 1950s and found its economic ideas appealing, seeing Bellamy as a "social prophet" and welcoming the idea of nationalized industry and a better distribution of wealth. Ultimately, while Bellamy's utopia has been criticized for its authoritarian aspects, his book was valuable because it challenged readers' complacency, fueled outrage at inequality, and spurred a desire for change by brilliantly making contemporary reality seem strange and unacceptable. **William Morris and His Artful Vision** Across the Atlantic, Edward Bellamy's success was viewed with alarm by William Morris. Morris, a towering figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, a poet, designer, and socialist activist, found Bellamy's utopia, this "cockney paradise," quite disturbing. "Cockney" for Morris meant anything vulgar, philistine, or middle class. Morris felt Bellamy, a quintessential middle-class reformer, was content with modern civilization if only its injustices were removed. Morris, on the other hand, confessed his leading passion (besides creating beauty) was "hatred of modern civilization". He wanted to expose the narrow, complacent, and authoritarian sides of _Looking Backward_ by writing his own utopian novel. Within months of reading Bellamy, Morris began _News from Nowhere_, which was serialized starting in 1890. Unlike Bellamy, who crafted a complex (if sometimes thin) plot device for time travel, Morris was upfront about his book being a dream. Morris believed that a utopia was essentially an "expression of the temperament of its author". While Bellamy created a protagonist quite different from himself, Morris's narrator, William Guest, is very much like Morris – fifty-six years old, living in Morris's London home on the Thames, and traveling upriver to a house resembling Morris's country retreat, Kelmscott Manor, where he meets a woman who brings Morris's wife Jane to mind. Morris's journey towards utopia wasn't sudden like Bellamy's; he had been rejecting the modern world for an idealized past for decades. This started in childhood with Walter Scott, continued with the Pre-Raphaelite movement (seeking to recapture earlier artistic truths), the Arts and Crafts movement (rejecting machine-made goods for handicrafts), and writing verse narratives about the heroism of the past. He even risked his reputation to join Britain's first socialist party and advocate for revolution. Morris's personality was a deliberate rejection of Victorian beliefs in progress, technology, and the separation of work and leisure, art and design, intellectual and manual labor. Morris was appalled by the poverty, inequality, and working conditions of his time, just like other utopians, but his critique was deeper. He intensely disliked modern civilization's worship of technology, efficiency, mass production, and the focus on money. His vision, particularly as expressed in _News from Nowhere_, showcases his lifelong revolt against these values. _News from Nowhere_ begins with the narrator leaving a heated Socialist League meeting where members are arguing about the future society. He falls asleep and wakes up in a glorious June morning in the 21st century, finding a world transformed back to something resembling Morris's beloved Middle Ages. Industrial sites are replaced by cottages, the Hammersmith Bridge is a graceful stone structure like Florence's Ponte Vecchio, and people wear medieval-style clothes. The Thames is clean, and London is now villages separated by countryside. Large cities like Manchester have disappeared, and people prefer premodern travel like horse carts and rowboats over trains. In this future world, the specialization of labor is gone; people do multiple kinds of work. There is no government, politics, or money. Schools as we know them have been abolished, though people learn reading simply from having books around, and acquire skills like swimming, riding, cooking, carpentry, thatching, and mowing. The core principle of labor is pleasure in the work itself, not efficiency or speed. People are drawn to difficult tasks, like haying, for the pleasure of physical effort in company. News from Nowhere portrays a peaceful realm without state coercion – no compulsory education, conscription, taxes, jury duty, or even prisons, police, or an army. People live long, healthy, beautiful lives, and their interactions are characterized by "wholesome sensuality," with sexuality open and free from shame. Morris rejected ideas of original sin and Darwinian competition, believing instead in a "plastic human nature shaped for good or ill by its environment". In his view, conflict and strife were results of social systems, not inherent human nature. However, _News from Nowhere_ is not without its contradictions, as critics have pointed out. How does a large population live well without industrialization? Morris implies people simply don't want the things industrialization provides, a bit of a circular argument. He also seems to assume that all necessary labor can become inherently pleasurable, avoiding the issue of unpleasant tasks like sewer-emptying. While he addressed this in an essay, the solutions proposed (making them agreeable or letting them lapse) seem unrealistic. Unlike Bellamy, who devised a system for necessary unpleasant tasks, Morris's vision relies on people simply being drawn to them for pleasure. Morris also seems to have struggled with acknowledging temperaments different from his own. There's little room for those driven by scientific research or technological development. While he includes one "grumbler" who misses the old competitive society, this character is easily dismissed. Morris believed that in a classless society, political conflict based on competing interests would disappear, seemingly unable to envision disagreements arising from fundamental differences in values (like innovation vs. preservation, privacy vs. publicity, family vs. community). Despite these points, _News from Nowhere_ remains widely admired. It's seen as a great "dream of freedom," contrasting with Bellamy's regimentation. Unlike earlier utopians who glossed over the transition, Morris devotes a significant portion of his book to the violent civil war necessary for the new world to emerge. What's the point of such a work? It can be seen both as a potentially realizable blueprint and a challenge to the reader's imagination. The long conversations about the structure of society provide the "blueprint," but the imaginative descriptions of daily life are perhaps more significant. Critics like E. P. Thompson suggest the book's true function is the "education of desire," teaching readers to desire better, more, and in a different way than consumer culture encourages. For Morris, _News from Nowhere_ was just one part of his lifelong commitment to utopianism. His medievalism, the Red House project (an attempt to create a "Palace of Art"), his work with the Firm (blending craft and design), his varied occupations (breaking down class distinctions), and his political activism – all were efforts to live out and bring about a "joyous, peaceful, and egalitarian eu-topia—not nowhere but a good place". **Beyond the Books: Lived Utopianism** _The Last Utopians_ doesn't stop with the early 20th century; it suggests that while the era of grand, totalizing utopian fiction might be over, the utopian impulse lives on in different forms. The author calls this "lived utopianism," the effort to live out some part of a transformed future in the here and now. This is where figures like Edward Carpenter's influence is most clearly seen today. The book explores contemporary "everyday utopias" that embody the values of the last utopians: egalitarianism (political, sexual, spiritual), simplicity and sustainability, and exploring new forms of family and community. The author visited several such sites: - **Intentional communities:** Like the one on the island of Erraid in the Scottish Hebrides, where residents garden, fish, tend livestock, and host visitors seeking a simpler life. These communities support themselves frugally but comfortably, sharing work assignments daily. The author describes the beauty of the place and the feeling of finding utopia there. He also visited another long-established intentional community in northern Scotland and one in rural Virginia. - **Temporary Utopias:** Like Occupy Wall Street, which the author visited in 2011. Although temporary, such movements create intentional communities and develop practices (like the "mic check") that embody democratic ideals. Other temporary communities inspired by Edward Carpenter are also mentioned: the Edward Carpenter Community, a British gay men's group, and the Radical Faeries, an American group tracing its lineage to Carpenter and Walt Whitman. Carpenter's belief in "Uranians" (men who loved men, women who loved women) as an "advance guard" for utopia is connected to these contemporary gay men's communities. - **Progressive Schools:** The author visited a Waldorf school, which aligns with Morris's ideas about education. Waldorf schools, inspired by Rudolf Steiner, emphasize gardening, cooking, and knitting alongside academics, valuing manual and artistic skills as much as intellectual ones. Their focus on gardening, particularly "biodynamic" methods that align with natural cycles, connects to contemporary food movements and environmentalism. - **Food Movements:** Described as perhaps the most widespread form of progressive utopianism today. Farmers and consumer activists in various locations are working towards a transformed food system, envisioning a future where small-scale, community-oriented, sustainable agriculture replaces large industrial farms and profit-driven conglomerates. This emphasis on sustainability and community resonates with the values of the last utopians. These contemporary examples, while varied, represent a shift from the "totalizing" utopian visions of the past. Some theorists argue that a vision must encompass the entire system to be truly utopian. However, the book proposes that "partial utopianism" is the vital form we see today. It's "partial" in two ways: it's incomplete, not seeking a total societal transformation, and it's preferential, focusing on specific aspects of change like community, education, or food. These contemporary utopians share the values of their predecessors – commitment to economic justice, gender and sexual equality, simplicity, sustainability, community, and progressive spirituality – and they pursue their goals nonviolently. But they are wary of the uniformity found in earlier grand visions and are more sensitive to human variety and difference. This partial utopianism is also sometimes accused of nostalgia, a longing for an imagined, rose-tinted past of small farms or tight-knit communities. However, the book suggests we shouldn't let the accusation of nostalgia shut down the conversation about the valuable aspirations behind these efforts. **The Purpose of Utopia** Throughout the book, the concept of utopia itself is explored in various ways. Historically, utopian literature has its roots in works like Plato's _Republic_, Thomas More's _Utopia_ (which offered an alternative model of the good life centered on equality and simplicity and was a literature of protest), Tommaso Campanella's _City of the Sun_, and Francis Bacon's _New Atlantis_ (an origin point for technological utopianism). Earlier traditions like Golden Age narratives, the Christian millennium, and medieval folklore of Cokaygne also fed into the idea of an ideal place. Utopias moved from being located in undiscovered places to being set in the future, suggesting achievability through human effort. Utopian studies scholars, a field that has grown significantly over the past forty years, see imagined utopias as "heuristic devices" or useful tools. Their purpose isn't necessarily their own realization, but rather to critique the present and stimulate critical thinking and political imagination, making "the impossible give birth to the possible". They serve as a "principle of hope". In contrast, dystopian literature provides powerful critiques but offers no positive alternatives. Some contemporary forms of social dreaming are also critiqued, like consumer-driven "degenerate" utopias (Disneyland, cruise ships), free-market utopianism (believing the market solves all problems), and techno-utopianism (faith in technology to create a better world), because they don't align with the democratic, egalitarian, antipatriarchal, environmental, and spiritual values central to the "last utopians" tradition. **Further Questions to Explore** Reading _The Last Utopians_ might leave you with some intriguing questions. For instance: - How do the potential downsides (like authoritarianism) in ambitious, totalizing utopian visions compare to the limitations (like potential nostalgia or incomplete reach) of more modest, "partial" utopian efforts? - Can the contradictions found in historical utopias (like Bellamy's equality coexisting with racial segregation in _Equality_, or Morris's rejection of unpleasant labor) teach us something about the challenges of creating truly inclusive and practical ideal societies? - Is there a way to balance the desire for a better future rooted in historical utopian values (like equality, sustainability, community) with an embrace of progress, technology, and innovation that some historical figures, like Morris, were wary of? - How do contemporary "everyday utopias" navigate the challenge of sustaining themselves and potentially influencing mainstream society beyond their specific sites? - Considering the argument that utopian fiction's value lies in revealing the limits of our imagination within current systems, how can we actively work to expand that collective imagination today? This book offers a rich look at the history and persistence of dreaming of better worlds, showing that even if the forms change, the fundamental human desire for "a map of the world that does not contain Utopia" remains essential.