HIST 109 - Utopias

Credits: (3)
The quest for an ideal society has emerged again and again throughout Western history. Plato’s dissatisfaction with the Athens of his day prompted him to write The Republic, and Thomas More’s dismay with the inequalities and inequities of 16th century England led him to pen his Utopia. Beginning with selections from these seminal works, this interdisciplinary course will investigate 19th and 20th century utopian visions, as well as social experiments such as the Israeli kibbutz, American communes, and the co-housing movement. Might contemporary America be primed for another flowering of the utopian ideal?