About this title: This is a fully revised edition of what is already one of the most successful volumes in the entire series of Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. This revision incorporates the many refinements to the translation of Utopia undertaken for the dual-language scholarly edition published by Cambridge in 1995, and Professor Logan has ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780521347976ISBN:0521347971
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Text in English, Latin. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 176 p. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Audience: General/trade. Cover almost looks new with shelf wear at the tips. Highlighting is minimal. Pages have gentle reading wear. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date Published: 1989-11-24
ISBN-13:9780521347976ISBN:0521347971
Description: Like New. Excellent paperback book. Binding is tight and square. No creases in cover or spine. No names, no remainder marks, no stickers. Text is clean and bright. Careful packaging and fast shipping. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: New York, NY, U.S.A. : Cambridge University Press, 1989
ISBN-13:9780521347976ISBN:0521347971
Description: Very Good. Very good softcover, one page has a little underlining o/w clean and tight. ISBN: 0521347971 **SEE OUR GREAT TERMS OF SALE** read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780521525404ISBN:0521525403
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"It's easy to dismiss this book but first remember: it was written in the 16th Century. This is a handy answer to many of the inequalities Raphael reports. It sounds like women and slaves and the lower classes would get a better deal in Utopia then they'd get in London in that time.
Of course by modern tastes Utopia is going to sound a bit too totalitarian, too unfree. Sometimes I don't want to do something productive and I certainly don't want Big Brother to be watching during my free time! But at least in More's world it seems as if change is not an impossible thing. The Utopian's prayer specifically asks to be enlightened should there be a better way. I wonder what mechanisms they have to evaluate and embrace these alternative ways though?
I found the book a little bit silly but interesting none the less, and an easy, short read. I look at it as a mini, more modern version of Plato's Republic (with a lot less depth). Like the Republic this place is not my, ahh, utopia at all but there is something in the ideas behind it. In our world 80% of people on earth live on less than (the equivalent of) US$10 per day. 25000 children die each day due to poverty. Each day. 25000. Think of a school class of 30 six-year old kids. More than 800 classes like this die each day.
In More's world nobody goes hungry. In our world nobody need go hungry. On this basis which world is better?
"Interesting, mostly just because it's cool to see what people (or at least Thomas More) considered to be an ideal society back then. Because really, it isn't.
There's a lot that I thought was really strange about Utopia (Latin for "no place"), but here's what I remember most: when parents are considering marrying their children off, they have the two teenagers stand naked in front of each other (accompanied by dependable chaperones, of course) so they can make sure neither of them has any weird deformities or anything. Logical on paper, I guess, but what I wondered was, what happens if the marriage negotiations fell through? Did these two people occasionally run into each other at the market, make brief eye contact, and then quickly run away, pretending they didn't know what the other looked like naked? I just think that would be all kinds of awkward."
"A lot of More's ideas are so ahead of his time but I found some of his thinking, just a couple of ideas, to be a little outdated. This is to be expected I suppose. Overall, in order for this society to work it would take so much re-programming and re-enforcing. We would all have to learn how to trust one another implicitly and we would have to learn how to trust our government implicitly. But the rewards would be copious. I really enjoyed reading this! It was refreshing. More believed in the equality of women, which for the 1500's is very forward thinking and also the right to believe in whatever religion or non-religion you want to believe in. Again, this is an overview, there were opposing threads as well but I don't have the space here to get into it. Suffice to say, more was a great thinker and an idealist and "Utopia" was filled with lovely possibilities. I highly recommend this book to everyone."
""Procreation is a duty which one owes both to nature and one's country. Adulterers of More's Utopia were sentenced to penal servitude. The progressive Henry VIII could not operate his kingdom with such leaders. Henry decapitated More.
More's society was severly anti materialist. Each member wore the same drab dull uniform, and they relieved themselves in gold pots.
The only aspect of his socialist commune that is appealing is the four hour work day, which leaves much time for intellectual pursuits. (as well as room for invasion).
Yet this book was obviously written by a fundementalist quack."
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