The Utopians

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>'Neima's book impeccably researched and beautifully written will be an inspiration for anyone looking to an alternative future today.' - Stella Tillyard author of <em>Aristocrats </em>and <em>The Great Level</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>'Deeply interesting and a pleasure to read <em>The Utopians</em> illuminates the history of social dreaming at a time when it has never been more needed.' - Alison Light author of <em>A Radical Romance Common People </em>and <em>Mrs. Woolf and the Servants</em></strong></p><p><br></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>The Utopians</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> is the remarkable story of six experimental communities - Santiniketan-Sriniketan in India Dartington Hall in England Atarashiki Mura in Japan the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France the Bruderhof in Germany and Trabuco College in America - that sprang up in the aftermath of the First World War.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Each was led by charismatic figures who dreamed of a new way of living. Rabindranath Tagore Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst Mushanokoji Saneatsu G. I. Gurdjieff Eberhard and Emmy Arnold and Gerald Heard all struggled to turn ambitious ideals into reality. They - and their fellow communards - left their jobs their homes and their social circles. They faced mockery and persecution penury hunger and discomfort and their own doubts about whether their efforts to change society would ever make a difference.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Anna Neima's absorbing and vivid account of these collectives from creation to collapse reveals them to be full of eccentric characters outlandish lifestyles and unchecked idealism. They were dramatic fractious places where high ideals collided with the need to feed the chickens clean the toilets bring up squabbling children and grow the grain for the daily bread.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>These communities were small in scale and dismissed in their time. Yet a century later their influence still resonates in realms as disparate as progressive education environmentalism medical research and mindfulness training. They provided and continue to provide a rich store of inspiration for those who aspire to improve the world. Without them the post-war world would have been a poorer place.</span></p>