"One of Choice Reviews' Outstanding Academic Titles of 2018" Michael Robertson is professor of English at The College of New Jersey and the author of two award-winning books, Worshipping Walt: The Whitman Disciples (Princeton) and Stephen Crane, Journalism, and the Making of Modern American Literature. A former freelance journalist, he has written for the New York Times, the Village Voice, Columbia Journalism Review, and many other publications.
The entertaining story of four utopian writers-Edward Bellamy, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman-and their continuing influence today
For readers reared on the dystopian visions of Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid's Tale, the idea of a perfect society may sound more sinister than enticing. In this lively literary history of a time before "Orwellian" entered the cultural lexicon, Michael Robertson reintroduces us to a vital strain of utopianism that seized the imaginations of late nineteenth-century American and British writers.
The Last Utopians delves into the biographies of four key figures--Edward Bellamy, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman-who lived during an extraordinary period of literary and social experimentation. The publication of Bellamy's Looking Backward in 1888 opened the floodgates of an unprecedented wave of utopian writing. Morris, the Arts and Crafts pioneer, was a committed socialist whose News from Nowhere envisions a workers' Arcadia. Carpenter boldly argued that homosexuals constitute a utopian vanguard. Gilman, a women's rights activist and the author of "The Yellow Wallpaper," wrote numerous utopian fictions, including Herland, a visionary tale of an all-female society.
These writers, Robertson shows, shared a belief in radical equality, imagining an end to class and gender hierarchies and envisioning new forms of familial and romantic relationships. They held liberal religious beliefs about a universal spirit uniting humanity. They believed in social transformation through nonviolent means and were committed to living a simple life rooted in a restored natural world. And their legacy remains with us today, as Robertson describes in entertaining firsthand accounts of contemporary utopianism, ranging from Occupy Wall Street to a Radical Faerie retreat. "[I]nstructive and touching."---Adam Gopnik, New Yorker "An extremely reliable as well as accessible introduction to the ferment of utopian ideas and practical experiments that . . . made the politics of the late nineteenth century fizz with an almost unprecedented sense of political possibility."---Matthew Beaumont, Times Literary Supplement "In this timely analysis . . . Robertson leaves readers with nourishing food for thought from another era." "[I]n their time, all four were culture heroes: best-selling authors, popular lecturers, public figures, and objects of veneration and pilgrimage. Michael Robertson, an English professor at the College of New Jersey, has undertaken to tell their story . . . with sympathy and insight."---George Scialabba, Arts Fuse "One of the most engaging features of The Last Utopians is the author's determination to personally explore and report on the projects of the 'contemporary partial utopians' who understand that 'utopianism is essential to society, that without it, we're reduced to a resigned acceptance of a morally intolerable status quo.'" "[Michael Robertson] has a commendably clear and enjoyable literary style. It is always welcome to read a book from an academic press that is written to be understood rather than to impress."---Richard Howells, Times Higher Education "A fascinating book."---John Rimmer, Magonia Review of Books "The Last Utopians has arrived at the right time."---Steve Toase, Fortean Times "A brilliant and eloquent guide through the life, times, and imaginations of some of the most compelling writers of the turn of the twentieth century, The Last Utopians is not an epitaph but,
