Max Nettlau S Utopian Vision

Max Nettlau’s Utopian Vision gives a historically grounded presentation of the entire literature of utopianism. Nettlau shows an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject. He passionately believes that the value of utopian thinking and class struggle should not be underestimated as utopian desire exists in all of us. Utopian thinking, according to Nettlau, stimulates the imagination and awakens the desire to attain a better life for everyone. Without it, human progress is impossible.

Max Nettlau's Utopian Vision provides a historically grounded presentation of the entire literature of utopianism. Nettlau shows an encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject. He passionately believed that the value of utopian thinking and class struggle should not be underestimated as utopian desire exists in all of us. Utopian thinking, according to Nettlau, stimulates the imagination and awakens the desire to attain a better life for everyone. Nettlau argues that every idea begins as a utopia: some are realized; others are not. Utopian thinking also creates a desire for radical change in society without which no new reality could emerge. Every reality is first dreamed of and, then, the act of dreaming awakens the desire for realization. It is the same desire without which every piece of art would be unthinkable. When utopian ideas reach the masses, forces are released that build bridges into the future and make things possible that otherwise would only exist as dreamlike imaginings. Indeed, Nettlau claims that history is the record of utopian thought practically imagined.

Communitarian anarchism is a generic form of socialism that denies the need for a state or any other authority over the individual from above, and which requires absolute belief that the individual cannot exist outside of a community of others. This book suggests that the communitarian anarchists of the nineteenth century developed and articulated a distinct tradition of economic thought. The period of this study begins with the first major writing of the French communitarian anarchist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, in 1840 and ends with the temporary burial of anarchist theorizing at the beginning of the First World War in 1914. However, he tradition of communitarian anarchist economic thought did not end in 1914. The economic thought explored in this book provides a fresh perception of the fragmentation evident in many societies today, especially where there is a substantial "informal economy."

Re-examines the role of the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, from their participation in the military to the management of substantial segments of the Spanish economy.

Nature is endlessly reinventing itself in a constant flux of movement and diversity. Yet the advancement of modern civilization has engendered extreme inequality, social division, and an imbalance between society and nature. Our technological proficiency has given our species the illusion of omnipotence; in our efforts to build robots more like us, we have not noticed how robotic we ourselves have become. To deal with this profound crisis, we must understand this problem at its roots. Could the origins of social domination and ecological exploitation be related? Is it possible for us to transform these dynamics and design society in a way that is cognizant of, and harmonious with, the Earth? In this visionary book, David Dobereiner lucidly delves into the present urban and ecological impasse and examines the prospects for our future. Laced with insights into social and political ecology and written with a lifetime's experience of innovating in ecological design, Organicity shows that there is still hope to build a more humane, egalitarian, and sustainable system, but it requires a fundamental shift in the way we do civilization. At the crossroads of creation and destruction, will evolution or entropy triumph?

Part one of a two-part history of the non-Marxist, libertarian form of socialism, aka anarchism. From its origins in the 18th century and the conflicts with Marx in the First International to insurrections, trade unions and specific anarchist organisations, the hidden history of an alternative tradition is revealed. The ideas about socialism so prevalent today, that it equates with state ownership, that is the perogative of the Party, that it has somehow failed, are all dismantled in this scholarly engagement with a complex ideology.