Jane~ How do you define the utopian dream...

In her newly published book The Utopians, Anna Neima selects six groups who each attempt to build their own Utopian society in the hope of making significant changes to the way we live. These 'dreamers', mostly from the early twentieth century, crisscross the continents of Europe, the Americas, and Japan. Their ideals were triggered by the end of the First World War when so much horror and change influenced society and a desire for free-thinking was emerging.

Neima chose the following six groups and their activists to introduce us to the experimental communities which have had such significance in building our present-day World.

Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan - Sriniketan A Bengali polymath - poet, composer, painter, and social reformer. A radical changer. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. His quest was to create environments in which thinkers could meet and harmonise.

Dorothy and Leonard Elmhurst's Dartington Hall Leonard a philanthropist and agronomist influenced by Tagore co-founded together with his wife Dorothy the Dartington Hall project in progressive education and rural reconstruction.

Mushanokoji Saneatsu's Atarashiki Mura Japanese novelist who promoted his philosophy of humanism as opposed to the more generally practiced naturalism. Strongly influenced by Tolstoy this is a fascinating chapter.

G. I. Gurdjieff's Institute of the Harmonious Development of Men A Russian philosopher, mystic and spiritual teacher who taught that most humans do not possess a unified consciousness. Instead, they live in a hypnotic "waking sleep". He believed that by being awakened to a higher state of consciousness it is possible to achieve greater human potential.

Eberhard and Emmy Arnold's Bruderhof Creators of a Christian community still existing today who choose to live in the pattern and poverty of the early Christians.

Gerald Heard's Trabuco College Co-founder with Aldous Huxley of the Trabuco College where the study of comparative religions and meditation formed the backbone of life.

This has been an absorbing and vivid account of these communities. Her writing is lively, thought-provoking, and engrossing to the very last word. Since finished this book I've spent time contemplating how these idealists have influenced the society in which we live today.

A worthy and enlightening read.

As a final thought one wonders whether after Covid similar movements will emerge and influence our future.

To request a copy of the book please click here.