Certain parts of the argument are not covered by this list of utopias.
The best introductions to utopian literature in general are in German;
see R. Blueher’s excellent pamphlet on Moderne Utopien; Ein Beitrag
zur Geschichte des Sozialismus, Bonn: 1920. While Mr. Van Wyck Brooks
put me independently on the trail of Rabelais’ Abbey of Theleme I
must acknowledge, with as much grace as possible, that Herr Blueher
anticipated me in grasping this clue to Renascence culture; and if
any credit is due, he deserves it. The most exhaustive catalogue of
pre-nineteenth century utopias is contained in Kautsky’s Vorläufer des
Modernen Sozialismus. Max Beer’s History of British Socialism has an
excellent discussion of the relation of the Utopians to socialism. See
also Moritz Kaufmann’s Utopias; or Schemes of Social Improvement, from
Sir Thomas More to Karl Marx, London: 1879. In the excellent History
of Utopian Thought, by Dr. J. O. Hertzler (Macmillan: 1923), the
phantasists are sympathetically treated.
The chapter on the Country House might well be prefaced by Mr.
Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class, a satire which seems
to me unique in scholarship and originality. The importance of our
social myths and our collective representations has been noted by a
whole school of French sociologists who follow Émile Durkheim; and the
dynamic force of ideas has been treated by Alfred Fouillée. On both
these topics there is a whole literature; and it would give a sense of
false simplicity to single out any particular essay. There is a fairly
popular discussion of the place of myths and ideals in the George
Sorel’s Reflexions on Violence, and Benjamin Kidd’s Science of Power
(especially Chapter V.).
As a loose illustration of the general method and outlook embodied
in this book I refer to the Making of the Future Series, edited by
Messrs. Patrick Geddes and Victor Branford and published by Williams
& Norgate, London. There is an able exposition of the regionalist
movement and of the fundamental realities upon which this movement
is based in two books published in that series; namely, Professor
Fleure’s Human Geography in Western Europe and C. B. Fawcett’s The
Provinces of England. Two works by the editors, The Coming Polity and
Our Social Inheritance are likewise suggestive. Professor Geddes is
the outstanding exponent of the Eutopian method both in thought and in
practical activity; and the reader should consult his City Development
(1904) and his Town-Planning towards City Development: a Report to the
Durbar of Indore, 2 vols. Indore, 1918. Both of these books are mines
from which all sorts of precious thoughts can be quarried. Remaindered
copies of the first can be obtained from John Grant, Bookseller,
Edinburgh; while the second is sold by Botsford, High Holborn, London.
Professor Geddes’ work exemplifies concretely a good part of what I
have sought to explain and define in not altogether adequate prose.
UTOPIAS
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