- 368 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
A journey through American utopian communities past and present, and a meditation on what we can learn from them.
"Reece has a sharp eye for the contradictions of communities that condemn the capitalist economy but are sustained by vibrant commercial enterprises . . . [Utopia Drive] vividly bring[s] to life the ecological sensitivity, inclusiveness, and egalitarianism that inspired so many in early America." âAkash Kapur, The New Yorker
For Erik Reece, life, at last, was good: he was newly married, gainfully employed, living in a creekside cabin in his beloved Kentucky woods. It sounded, as he describes it, "like a country song with a happy ending." And yet he was still haunted by a sense that the worldâor, more specifically, his countryâcould be better. He couldn't ignore his conviction that, in fact, the good ol' USA was in the midst of great social, environmental, and political crisesâthat for the first time in our history, we were being swept into a future that had no future. Where did weâhere, in the land of Jeffersonian optimism and better tomorrowsâgo wrong?
Rather than despair, Reece turned to those who had dared to imagine radically different futures for America. What followed was a giant road trip and research adventure through the sites of America's utopian communities, both historical and contemporary, known and unknown, successful and catastrophic. What he uncovered was not just a series of lost histories and broken visionaries but also a continuing and vital but hidden idealistic tradition in American intellectual history. Utopia Drive is an important and definitive reconstruction of that tradition. It is also, perhaps, a new framework to help us find a genuinely sustainable way forward.
"From the Shaker communities of Kentucky to modern-day cooperatives in the Northeast. . . . Ed Reece explores the history of the utopian impulse on American soil with a sense of urgency about the current moment in our country." âRay Suarez, NPR's All Things Considered
"An engaging explorationâand exampleâof the fruitful tunnel-visions of dreamers turned doers." â Publishers Weekly
"Reece has a sharp eye for the contradictions of communities that condemn the capitalist economy but are sustained by vibrant commercial enterprises . . . [Utopia Drive] vividly bring[s] to life the ecological sensitivity, inclusiveness, and egalitarianism that inspired so many in early America." âAkash Kapur, The New Yorker
For Erik Reece, life, at last, was good: he was newly married, gainfully employed, living in a creekside cabin in his beloved Kentucky woods. It sounded, as he describes it, "like a country song with a happy ending." And yet he was still haunted by a sense that the worldâor, more specifically, his countryâcould be better. He couldn't ignore his conviction that, in fact, the good ol' USA was in the midst of great social, environmental, and political crisesâthat for the first time in our history, we were being swept into a future that had no future. Where did weâhere, in the land of Jeffersonian optimism and better tomorrowsâgo wrong?
Rather than despair, Reece turned to those who had dared to imagine radically different futures for America. What followed was a giant road trip and research adventure through the sites of America's utopian communities, both historical and contemporary, known and unknown, successful and catastrophic. What he uncovered was not just a series of lost histories and broken visionaries but also a continuing and vital but hidden idealistic tradition in American intellectual history. Utopia Drive is an important and definitive reconstruction of that tradition. It is also, perhaps, a new framework to help us find a genuinely sustainable way forward.
"From the Shaker communities of Kentucky to modern-day cooperatives in the Northeast. . . . Ed Reece explores the history of the utopian impulse on American soil with a sense of urgency about the current moment in our country." âRay Suarez, NPR's All Things Considered
"An engaging explorationâand exampleâof the fruitful tunnel-visions of dreamers turned doers." â Publishers Weekly
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Yes, you can access Utopia Drive by Erik Reece in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Frontispiece
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Nonesuch: Woodford County, Kentucky/Mile: 000000
- The New Creation: Pleasant Hill, Kentucky/Mile: 000016
- Monkâs Pond: Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani Monastery: Bardstown, Kentucky/Mile: 000068
- A Beautiful Failure: New Harmony, Indiana/Mile: 000268
- A Simple Act of Moral Commerce: Cincinnati and Utopia, Ohio/Mile: 000569
- How Should People Live?: Twin Oaks: Louisa, Virginia/Mile: 001092
- A Clearinghouse for Dreams: Utopia Parkway: Queens, New York/Mile: 001430
- The Pine Barrens Anarchists: Modern Times: Long Island, New York/Mile: 001753
- Hunger Not to Have but to Be: Walden Pond: Concord, Massachusetts/Mile: 001901
- Some Heartbreak, Much Happiness: Oneida, New York/Mile: 002184
- What If?: Niagara Falls, Canada/Mile: 002373
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- Also by Erik Reece
- A Note About the Author
- Newsletter Sign-up
- Contents
- Copyright