{"product_id":"utopian-thought-in-the-western-world-belknap-press","title":"Utopian Thought in the Western World (Belknap Press)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis masterly study has a grand sweep. It ranges over centuries  with a long look backward over several millennia. Yet the history it unfolds is primarily the story of individuals: thinkers and dreamers who envisaged an ideal social order and described it persuasively  leaving a mark on their own and later times.  The roster of utopians includes men of all stripes in different countries and eras--figures as disparate as More and Fourier  the Marquis de Sade and Edward Bellamy  Rousseau and Marx. Fascinating character studies of the major figures are among the delights of the book.  Utopian writings run the gamut from fictional narratives to theoretical treatises  from political manifestos to constitutions for a new society. The Manuels have structured five centuries of utopian invention by identifying successive constellations  groups of thinkers joined by common social and moral concerns. Within this framework they analyze individual writings  in the context of the authors life and of the socio-economic  religious  and political exigencies of his time. Concentrating on innovative works  they highlight disjunctures as well as continuities in utopian thought from the Renaissance through the twentieth century.  Witty and erudite  challenging in its interpretations and provocative in the questions it poses  the Manuels anatomy of utopia is an adventure in ideas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44948574076981,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674931858","price":93.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674931855.jpg?v=1770052199","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/utopian-thought-in-the-western-world-belknap-press","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}