Everyday Utopia

What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life

Kristen R. Ghodsee

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2023
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9781982190231
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political History & Theory
• Index: Politics & International Relations

A “fascinating” (The Wall Street Journal), “spirited and inspiring” (Jacobin) tour through the ages in search of the thinkers and communities that have dared to reimagine how we might better live our daily lives.

In the 6th century BCE, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras—a man remembered today more for his theorem about right-angled triangles than for his progressive politics—founded a commune in a seaside village in what’s now southern Italy. The men and women there shared their property, lived as equals, and dedicated themselves to the study of mathematics and the mysteries of the universe.

Ever since, humans have been dreaming up better ways to organize how we live together, pool our resources, raise our children, and determine who’s part of our families. Some of these experiments burned brightly for only a brief while, but others carry on today: from the Danish cohousing communities that share chores and deepen neighborly bonds, to matriarchal Colombian ecovillages where residents grow their own food; and from Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra “alloparents” to help raise children not their own, to China where planned microdistricts ensure everything a busy household might need is nearby.

One of those startlingly rare books that upends what you think is possible, Everyday Utopia provides a “powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project, but also a political one” (Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad). This “must-read” (Thomas Piketty, New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Equality) offers a radically hopeful vision for how to build more contented and connected societies, alongside a practical guide to what we all can do in the meantime to live the good life each and every day.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Author’s Note
• Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Chapter 1: To Boldly Know Where No One Has Known Before: How Blue Sky Thinking Can Set Us Free
• Chapter 2: Home Is Where the Walls Are: Thinking Outside the Single-Family Box
• Chapter 3: Kids as Public Goods: Why the Privatization of Childhood Is Bad for Families
• Chapter 4: The Good School: Educating the Next Generation of Social Dreamers
• Chapter 5: Imagine No Possessions, I Wonder Why We Can’t: How Sharing Our Things Can Open Our Hearts
• Chapter 6: Shall I Compare Thee to a Violent Ape?: Why Our Families Are Nuclear
• Chapter 7: You and Me and Baby Makes Misery: Expanding Our Networks of Love and Care
• Chapter 8: The ‘Star Trek’ Game Plan: How Radical Hope Defeats Dystopian Despair
• Acknowledgments
• A Simon & Schuster Reading Group Guide
• About the Author
• Notes
• Selected Suggestions for Further Reading
• Index
• List of Figures
• Copyright