A defense of the radical imagination from a scholar of social movements.
Political theorist and philosopher Richard Gilman-Opalsky’s  Imaginary Power, Real Horizons  is a tribute to the imagination and to its necessity for liberatory struggle. “‘Impractical’ is the name given to anyone who imagines something radically other than what exists, ” he writes. However, many things—such as the abolition of slavery—were dismissed as impractical before they came to be.
In a warm, plainspoken manner, these essays chart the affects of creativity and utopianism through topics as varied as the cyclical nature of popular movements; the international history of May Day; the experience of teaching political theory and Marxism in contemporary China; and the revolutionary aspirations of Free Jazz. The human imagination is a real, world-creating power, and those who would declare otherwise have a poor understanding of history.
Imaginary Power, Real Horizons  is a call to action for those who would dare to dream of a society organized by a different logic than capitalism.