The Utopia Reader, Second Edition

I just got my book & I am unable to express my excitement. The pages are smooth (like those of some Bibles) & the text is comprehensive & touches on authors & works I did not even imagine previously.I was hoping to find excerpts & salient points from the relevant texts & it seems I will (still hopeful).Above all may we not have to merely read of eutopias but live (life to the fullest) & love & prosper in the highest of eutopias. The TV show "the good place" could have used this text & other ideas of Plato (attempts at eutopias have a strong tradition in Platonic dialogues from the Republic to the Laws more importantly). Perhaps, such notions of a better world are important to share with the public hence my insta post, my linkedin post & this review (after a decade).EDIT: I feel that it is easier to come up with non-positive dystopia than to come up with truly good & enjoyable eutopias. This book so far (pg 117) seems to testify to that. It is rare to come across aspects of an ideal / golden age in this text. There is however a lot of texts that distract from the positive heavenly golden age. One of these texts included a passage on the monastic life (presented as an ideal) - confusing eutopias with law giving / organization of life on earth (by Lycurgus & Solon & Numa) ; ignoring that the monastic orders embrace the spartan life in anticipation of the kingdom of heaven in the afterlife or the advent, not in assuming that they dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven.There is a big difference in what people like Lycurgus did in Sparta & the golden age or a "eutopia" (lets even forget this word ruinedby some because Thomas Moore describes a world that is far from the golden age & closer to the tinkering by Lycurgus & his like). In this text the bias is in favor of dystopias so much that the anthologists are willing to define eutopias as "utopia" (a place that does not exist). This text could pass more for a critical analysis or deconstruction of eutopias or a diatribe/polemic against eutopias at times. Again this is because its not easy to come up with aspects of the golden age but it is easier to come up with dystopias.A popular bias in some ivory tower dwellers is that they take any thought of eutopias as a personal insult for some inexplicable reason "surely things must be perfect, they are for me, and if its not for you then dreaming up eutopias is not the answer, get with the program ... etc. like we do in the U of London & Missouri".

It held up well

I used this anthology in a freshman English course I was assigned to teach. Having chosen the theme of utopian and dystopian literature, this book seemed like a perfect choice. I realized in actually using it that it was anything but perfect. My students struggled with the readings. The selections from Plato's Republic were particularly odd focusing on how to avoid incestuous relationships. A random chapter was included from "Herland" rather than excerpts from throughout the book that would have more clearly described the utopian society depicted in this work. I found the choice of excerpts to be lazily and randomly chosen rather than carefully selected. I am teaching the same course again, but instead of using this book again, I am re-reading the primary sources and choosing my own excerpts. Most of the texts excerpted are available for free on Project Gutenburg anyway, so there's no need to waste your money on this anthology.