The Reform of Utopia

Reviews / Votes

'However often is it prematurely buried, the idea of utopia somehow always manages to outlive its grave diggers. One salient reason is its capacity to renew itself and learn from its past errors. Wayne Hudson's The Reform of Utopia splendidly illustrates the resilience of the utopian tradition, which he reinvents in non-totalizing, pluralist and decentered form and defends in sober rather than rhapsodic prose. Having established himself as an internationally acclaimed authority on the great utopian theorist Ernst Bloch, Hudson shows himself to be a worthy contributor in his own right to the 21st-century elaboration of the utopian project.' Professor Martin Jay, University of California at Berkeley, USA 'Wayne Hudson has written a significant contemporary interpretation of utopia that demonstrates its continued relevance for our times. One of its messages is that the utopianism is embedded in the cultural and political logic of modernity and consequently cannot be avoided or dismissed as a nostalgia for a lost totality.' Professor Gerard Delanty, University of Liverpool, UK 'Wayne Hudson's The Reform of Utopia is one of the most interesting of recent books. It challenges utopian-studies scholars because it posees some interesting questions, underlines unexplored points, and suggests new areas for research. Without doubt, it is a book that takes utopian thought seriously.' Utopian Studies 'The book is a well researched work of utopian history which has, over centuries, influenced social behaviour across the world...The book should attract serious students of social sciences and human behaviour looking for virtual and actual postulates for transformation of societies into near utopian societies.' USI Journal