Utopian Literature Pre 1900 Imprints

Examines "the range of ... resources available in research libraries that cannot be found on the Internet. These include not only the tens of millions of books, journals, and other post-1923 printed sources that cannot be digitized because of copyright restrictions, but a rich array of subscription databases in all subject areas that are not accessible on the open Web, but are freely searchable via research libraries"--

Taking a new approach to the history of utopia, this volume combines the political study of literary form with the literary study of political rhetoric. After arguing that early modern utopists, both literary and non-literary, attempt to reshape displaced populations, Holstun concentrates on two utopian projects of the mid-17th century: the political platforms and Algonquin "praying towns" of John Eliot in Massachusetts and the republican political writing of James Harrington in Protectorate England. Moving between these projects and modern analyses of rationalization, he shows that Puritan utopia shares the modern Western longing for universal social discipline and that it envisions this discipline as the rational means to the Millennium.