The Shape of Utopia

The Architecture of Radical Reform in Nineteenth-Century America

Irene Cheng

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781452960951
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

How nineteenth-century social reformers devised a new set of radical blueprints for society

In the middle of the nineteenth century, a utopian impulse flourished in the United States through the circulation of architectural and urban plans predicated on geometrically distinct designs. Though the majority of such plans remained unrealized, The Shape of Utopia emphasizes the enduring importance of these radical propositions and their ability to visualize alternatives to what was then a newly emerging capitalist nation.

Drawing diagrammatic plans for structures such as octagonal houses, a hexagonal anarchist city, and circular centers of equitable commerce, these various architectural utopians applied geometric forms to envision a more just and harmonious society. Highlighting the inherent political capacity of architecture, Irene Cheng showcases how these visionary planners used their blueprints as persuasive visual rhetoric that could mobilize others to share in their aspirations for a better world.

Offering an extensive and uniquely focused view of mid-nineteenth-century America’s rapidly changing cultural landscape, this book examines these utopian plans within the context of significant economic and technological transformation, encompassing movements such as phrenology, anarchism, and spiritualism. Engaging equally with architectural history, visual culture studies, and U.S. history, The Shape of Utopia documents a pivotal moment in American history when ordinary people ardently believed in the potential to reshape society.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction: The Visual Rhetoric of Reform
• Chapter 1. Antinomies of American Utopia: Thomas Jefferson’s Grids and Octagons
• Chapter 2. The Visual Rhetoric of Equality: The Land Reformers’ Grid
• Chapter 3. Cultivating the Liberal Self: Orson Fowler’s Octagon House
• Chapter 4. Picturing Sociality without Socialism: The Kansas Vegetarian Octagon Colony
• Chapter 5. Toward More Transparent Representation: The Hexagonal “Anarchist” City of Josiah Warren
• Chapter 6: Models, Machines, and Manifestations: The Spiritualists’ Circular Utopias
• Epilogue: The Afterlife of Geometric Utopianism
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author