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Utopia
Mark Stephen Jendrysik
polity
Copyright page
Copyright © Mark Stephen Jendrysik 2020
The right of Mark Stephen Jendrysik to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2020 by Polity Press
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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3492-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3493-7 (pb)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jendrysik, Mark Stephen, author.
Title: Utopia / Mark Stephen Jendrysik.
Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. | Series: Key concepts in political theory | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Mark Jendrysik examines the multifarious ways utopians have posed the question of how humans might realize truly human values”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019033282 (print) | LCCN 2019033283 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509534920 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509534937 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509534944 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Utopias.
Classification: LCC HX806 .J364 2020 (print) | LCC HX806 (ebook) | DDC 335/.02--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033282
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033283
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Acknowledgments
The roots of this book go back a very long way. My father, Stephen Jendrysik, the longtime president of the Edward Bellamy Memorial Association, first introduced me to the life and work of our hometown utopian. Isaac Asimov encouraged my utopian hopes and dreams when I met him soon after my tenth birthday. I would like to thank my colleagues from the Society for Utopian Studies. I have shared many interesting and enlightening discussions over the last fifteen years with Lyman Tower Sargent, Gregory Claeys, Alex MacDonald, Naomi Jacobs and Claire Curtis. Most of what makes up this book was presented at the society’s conferences. My colleague and friend Ted Pedeleski took the time to read several drafts of the book and provided valuable feedback. The insights of three anonymous reviewers and the editors from Polity, George Owers and Julia Davies, improved the book immeasurably. Students in my classes on utopian thought at the University of Virginia, Bucknell University, the University of Mississippi and the University of North Dakota provided insights that inform every page. And, as ever, Kiara Kraus-Parr inspired me to do my best.
Introduction
Books addressing utopia and utopian political thought often start with a well-known quote from Oscar Wilde: “A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail.” For Wilde, utopia is an aspiration that, once realized, requires us to seek for something better. There can be no end to this pursuit, this desire, this dream. But books about utopia also often start off with an epigram from Max Beerbohm: “So this is utopia … I thought it was hell” (both quoted in Sargent 2010: 1). As a political idea utopia means liberation. But we must always ask: liberation from what? After all, one person’s liberation can be another person’s enslavement. And freedom for some has often required the oppression of others. One person’s paradise could be another’s prison.
Utopia has come to mean ideas that are ridiculed