THE UTOPIA THAT (ALMOST) WORKED

Kathleen M. Fernandez. Zoar: The Story of an Intentional Community. Kent University Press, 2019.

A number of times recently Magonia has looked at books examining utopian ideas and communities. When I have reviewed any I have been influenced by Peter Rogerson's last article for Magonia, where he spoke of the 'dangers of purity', the manner in which the search for a pure ideal, has destroyed the humanism of those involved in it.
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PURITY IS DANGER

Michael Robertson. The Last Utopians: Four Late 19th Century Visionaries and Their Legacy. Princeton University Press. 2018.

Concluding the very last piece he wrote for Magonia, our dear friend Peter Rogerson said: “The anthropologist Mary Douglas once wrote a book called Purity and Danger, but a book called ‘Purity is Danger’ would be more apposite...

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DIPPING INTO THE MAGIC PURSE

S D Tucker. False Economies; The Strangest, Least Successful and Most Audacious Financial Follies, Plans and Crazes of All Time. Amberley, 2017.

I have a vague memory from when I was about five or six, of reading an Enid Blyton story where one of the characters had a magic purse which always contained one penny, no matter how much the young girl who found it had spent. By the time I was seven or eight and managing my own pocket-money I realised that this was no basis on which to build a viable economy.

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SIGNPOSTS TO UTOPIA

Michael J. Lewis, City of Refuge: Separatists and Utopian Town Planning, Princeton University Press, 2016.

A history of town planning and architecture is unusual Magonian fare, but this one does have some relevant aspects, dealing as it does with religious sects as well as touching, albeit reluctantly, on aspects of esotericism.
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WHEN LIBRARIANS RULE THE WORLD

Alex Wright. Cataloging the World. Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age. Oxford University Press, 2014.

Alex Wright's book is a great introduction to Paul Otlet's life and he provides a thorough overview of its historical context and how it relates to our Internet Age. Otlet (1868-1944) was an idealistic thinker who devoted his life to organising knowledge for the enhancement of humanity.
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A VERY PALE UTOPIA

Howard P Segal. Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

Of all the visions and beliefs which have influenced humankind over the millennia, that of a radically transformed world is perhaps the most potent. Many of these visions have been of a religious nature, with transformations brought about by divine or other supernatural cause. Utopias however envisage good (or not so good) societies brought about by human action.
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THE EAST IS RED

Andrei Znamenski. Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia. Quest Books/Theosophical Publishing House, 2011.

This is a book which overturns many common perceptions about the world and politics, it is a revelation of a topsy-turvey world in which Tibetan Buddhist jihadists meet mystical Communists and Russo-American mystics in the pursuit of the dream of a perfect society peopled by new model human beings.
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MAPPING UTOPIA

Michael D Gordin, Helen Tilley and Gyan Prakash (editors). Utopia/Dystopia: Conditions of Historical Possibility. Princeton University Press, 2010.

Utopia, the good place which is no place at all, and dystopia, the utopia gone wrong, still haunt our imagination, despite their official exorcism from modern culture. These essays cover a range of utopian imaginings, often in the form of petty utopias, ranging from urban design to preserving archives.

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