Everyday Utopia
What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life
Table of Contents
About The Book
In the 6th century BCE, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras—a man remembered today more for his theorem about right-angled triangles than for his progressive politics—founded a commune in a seaside village in what’s now southern Italy. The men and women there shared their property, lived as equals, and dedicated themselves to the study of mathematics and the mysteries of the universe.
Ever since, humans have been dreaming up better ways to organize how we live together, pool our resources, raise our children, and determine who’s part of our families. Some of these experiments burned brightly for only a brief while, but others carry on today: from the Danish cohousing communities that share chores and deepen neighborly bonds, to matriarchal Colombian ecovillages where residents grow their own food; and from Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra “alloparents” to help raise children not their own, to China where planned microdistricts ensure everything a busy household might need is nearby.
One of those startlingly rare books that upends what you think is possible, Everyday Utopia provides a “powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project, but also a political one” (Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad). This “must-read” (Thomas Piketty, New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Equality) offers a radically hopeful vision for how to build more contented and connected societies, alongside a practical guide to what we all can do in the meantime to live the good life each and every day.
Reading Group Guide
Introduction
What if we could live our lives differently?
For thousands of years, people have been asking this question, probing the norms that govern our daily lives, and imagining how they could look if we chose a different set of values to live by. From ancient Greece to medieval France to 20th century Russia, people have made these dreams a reality, building utopian communities that experimented with alternate ways of living together, raising and educating children, and even sharing property. Even though each of these experimented ended, they push us to build on their example, and acknowledge that reimagining our private lives is the first step to changing our political lives.
Discussion Questions
1. Reflect on your day-to-day life. How do you and the people you know manage the responsibilities of daily life? Are there areas where that work could be organized differently?
2. In Chapter 1, Ghodsee explains the root of the word “utopia.” Utopia refers to a “no place,” or nowhere, while its homonym, eutopia, refers to a “good place.” Going into this book, what preconceived notions did you have about utopias? How does the root of the word change your perspective?
3. Companies and think tanks embrace blue sky thinking, which encourages employees to imagine all the ways (practical or not) that they can create new products or address issues. Why is this kind of thinking considered dangerous when it comes to reimagining how we live our private lives?
4. Discuss the history of collective living experiments, from the Beguines to Godin’s Familistery to today’s co-living apartment buildings. What elements of these models would you put together for a future utopian experiment, and why?
5. Utopian thinkers have employed a variety of experiments to address how we can collectively raise children. Why, as Ghodsee points out, do communities like Oneida initially turn us off? What are some of the unspoken assumptions about child-rearing in our culture?
6. As Ghodsee discusses in Chapter 4, while people dismiss utopian experiments around childhood education because they think it is brainwashing, our schools are already governed by a set of values. What are the unspoken cultural norms that govern education, and what would it take to uproot them?
7. A variety of utopian experiments, religious and secular, have tried different models of communal property sharing. Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of sharing property and income. What would motivate you to participate in one of these experiments, and what would make you hesitate?
8. Discuss the concept of alloparenting and your own childhood experiences. Did you grow up surrounded by an extended family? How do you think a wider group of parental figures would have impacted your development?
9. If you could visit any of the utopian experiments Ghodsee discusses, which would it be, and why?
10. Reflect on how the experiments you’ve read about have harnessed hope to build their utopias. After reading this, how can you build your cognitive capacity for hope?
About The Author
Kristen R. Ghodsee is a professor and chair of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the critically acclaimed author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence, which has been translated into fifteen languages. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among other outlets, and she’s appeared on PBS NewsHour and France 24 as well as on dozens of podcasts, including NPR’s Throughline, Vox’s The Gray Area, and The Ezra Klein Show. She lives outside Philadelphia.
About The Reader
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (May 16, 2023)
- Runtime: 9 hours and 48 minutes
- ISBN13: 9781797156132
Raves and Reviews
“My god, this book is what I need right now! Exhilarating, good humored, and forward looking, it’s blown open my brain. What a powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project, but also a very serious political one.”
—Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad
“Utopia is back! And it ought to be taken seriously, as history is made by the dreamers. If you want to open up new futures for our private lives, please have a look at this refreshing book. A must-read.”
—Thomas Piketty, New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Equality
“More could be possible than we imagine—that’s the liberating and inspirational message of Kristen Ghodsee’s sweeping feminist history of society at its most creative. What a gift she’s given us with this mind-broadening investigation into how for millennia our fellow human beings have reckoned with the toughest questions of fidelity, family, and love.”
—Ada Calhoun, New York Times bestselling author of Why We Can't Sleep
“A fascinating read.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Spirited and inspiring.”
—Jacobin
“Refreshingly optimistic and accessible.”
—The Nation
“Kristen Ghodsee has boldly gone where few would dare to tread. In this warm, intelligent, and lucid book, she takes us on a deep dive into how people have created better systems for living—systems that actually work. With clear-eyed views of how utopian communities can promote human thriving, she offers hope in a time when we desperately need new ways of imagining the future.”
—Robert Waldinger, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Life and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development
“Scholarly and deeply personal.”
—Inside Higher Ed
“This book is about something I love reading about, which is communes and various experiments in communal living. And [Ghodsee is] ranging all the way from way back the Neolithic period to modern eco villages to communes and religious experiments you might have heard about in the 19th and 20th centuries.”
—Ezra Klein, "The Ezra Klein Show"
“Invigorating writing for a cheerless era. Having explained to us Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism, Kristen Ghodsee is back with another splendid insight: utopia can, and ought to, be an everyday thing, in every home.”
—Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek Minister of Finance and author of Talking to My Daughter About the Economy
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Everyday Utopia Unabridged Audio Download 9781797156132
- Author Photo (jpg): Kristen R. Ghodsee Elena Hmeleva Photography(0.1 MB)
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