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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
“Changing how we live our daily lives is a form of politics”
Utopians push the limits of what seems possible. This was a creative book that encouraged radical hope.
It focused on the downfalls of individualism, including our society’s emphasis on single family units of living. I was able to reimagine practical examples of community with my neighbors, extended family, and friends.
It was packed with great history lessons as well as present day examples - most of which I hadn’t heard of before, and I enjoyed. I especially enjoyed the chapters on possessions and unique living / housing arrangements.
(I listened via audiobook on/off over 6 months. At some points I think it could’ve been a bit shorter, but alas).
Also now I want to watch Star Trek now lol.
Utopians push the limits of what seems possible. This was a creative book that encouraged radical hope.
It focused on the downfalls of individualism, including our society’s emphasis on single family units of living. I was able to reimagine practical examples of community with my neighbors, extended family, and friends.
It was packed with great history lessons as well as present day examples - most of which I hadn’t heard of before, and I enjoyed. I especially enjoyed the chapters on possessions and unique living / housing arrangements.
(I listened via audiobook on/off over 6 months. At some points I think it could’ve been a bit shorter, but alas).
Also now I want to watch Star Trek now lol.
Often we are limited by our own imagination. This book provides counter-narratives to our current societal expectations to help the reader imagine better ways to structure society.
The first part of this book tries to show that many of the undercurrents in our society (marriage, patriliniality, private property, etc.) arise from a particular historical setting and that alternative worldviews are possible.
The book then describes how people have organized in communal situations, what has worked, and what hasn't. It covers a wide range of topics from the philosophical underpinnings of the founders to American tax law.
Chapters are organized by issue, which allows for one to understand how society can be restructured, but it prevents diving deep into a particular communal situation. Overall, I think the book's structure helps provide for a good overview.
Most of the examples in the book center around Europe and North America. I would love to have seen more examples from throughout the world.
While the author did her research and is clearly knowledgeable about the field, she is unapologetically in support of creating an alternative society, even if she recognizes that other structures aren't perfect either.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Given the collapse of capitalist society and the global climate, the author offers neither reform nor revolution but only the option to retreat into intentional communities. Living within the system with recipes from the past that were neither particularly popular nor successful. She’s also a big fan of kibbutzim, the racist pioneer outposts of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Disappointing waste of time.
I found this deeply thought provoking and engaging. Great book for discussion
En general me ha gustado bastante. Sobre todo, me ha hecho reflexionar al leer otras ideas y conocer otras realidades.
This book was really underwhelming.
I finished it a month or so ago so this review is delayed and muddles. Thing is, muddled is a good way to describe this book actually. The author wanted her argument to be so true that she started to introduce fictional and traumatic examples to uphold her arguments. At one point she even gives credit to polygamist communes for living well together, very much undermining the abuse that went hand in hand with this to an extent.
I just think more powerful, real-life, first hand modern examples exist that she could’ve referenced instead.
To top it off, at the very end, she closed with a “la la you just gotta have faith” chunk and that really ruined it for me.
I learned a few interesting fun facts.
Wouldn’t recommend this book probably.
I finished it a month or so ago so this review is delayed and muddles. Thing is, muddled is a good way to describe this book actually. The author wanted her argument to be so true that she started to introduce fictional and traumatic examples to uphold her arguments. At one point she even gives credit to polygamist communes for living well together, very much undermining the abuse that went hand in hand with this to an extent.
I just think more powerful, real-life, first hand modern examples exist that she could’ve referenced instead.
To top it off, at the very end, she closed with a “la la you just gotta have faith” chunk and that really ruined it for me.
I learned a few interesting fun facts.
Wouldn’t recommend this book probably.
informative
sad
medium-paced
Everyday Utopia by Kristen Ghodsee--This is a fun, thought-provoking book about our ever-so-human attempts to create utopia and our ever-so-human failures at every turn. Ghodsee reviews two thousand years of communes, collaborative schools, rural and urban experiments, all trying to get at a "better" way of living. While the book is well-researched, much time is spent amplifying the successes of these experiments when it's possible a more edifying book would detail why these attempts didn't work out. Ghodsee is sometimes militantly evangelical in her approach, and she appears convinced that the glorification of the family unit is the primary thing that keeps us one step away from utopia. To that end, she brings up philosophers, revolutionaries, and, yes, cult leaders who have also decried the family unit. I think there's certainly something to what she's saying--what does it mean for the American political system to be focused on winning "middle class/working class families" (even if only in word, not in deed) rather than uplifting everyone through a communal approach? For me, though, I think this book convinced me that a society-level communal utopia isn't possible to strive for. Put another way, maybe the real utopia is the friends we made along the way. Thumbs up.
~In my utopia era~
she really hates the nuclear family lol
she really hates the nuclear family lol