Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities by Howard P. Segal (review)

Howard P. Segal is well known to the utopian scholarly community, particularly with his excellent work on technology and utopianism in publications such as Technological Utopianism in American Culture (1985), Future Imperfect: The Mixed Blessings of Technology in America (1994), Technology in America: A Brief History (1989, 2nd ed. 1999, with Alan Marcus), and Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford’s Village Industries (2005). His most recent book, Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities, is part of the Wiley-Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion Series and serves as an introduction to key cultural and religious terms/movements. Segal does not shy away from bold definitions and delineations to separate utopias from millenarianism and science fiction, from abstract utopias and daydreams. He chooses the term genuine utopia to indicate “a radical improvement of physical, social, economic, and psychological conditions” (5). “Genuine utopias,” argues Segal, “frequently seek not to escape from the real world but to make the real world better” (7). However, bold definitions lead to the exclusion of important nuances, debates, and writers. So, for example, H. G. Wells is largely neglected, as Segal largely dismisses science fiction as “escapist fantasies.” This is an interesting but problematic point, as Segal celebrates the scientific and technological aspects of utopia in particular. Perhaps a pointer toward and engagement with critics such as Darko Suvin would have illuminated Segal’s position more constructively.

Segal starts off by outlining the manifold manifestations that utopias and utopianism have had, from biblical prophecies to world fair exhibitions and cyberspace communities: “Because utopianism is usually studied piecemeal, it is important to recognize its multiple dimensions and the relationships between them” (24). This is an ambitious project, and Segal manages to bring together many aspects and dimensions of utopia and utopianism.

In his historical overview, he particularly excels in the historical intersection between technology and utopia, a particular specialism of Segal. He moves on to more contemporary examples with particular focus on technology again and as a case in point for the relationship between utopianism and its practical transformative relevance, presents a case study of the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company. This section traces the rise and fall of nuclear power in a small U.S. state as a very problematic test case of a utopian scheme undermined in the “real” world. The presentation of the clash of “utopian” visions of a bright technological future with environmental and political concerns is not convincing, as the case study would have needed to explore the relationship between utopia and ideology.

The chapter “The Resurgence of Utopianism” also addresses failed education initiatives at the University of Illinois and the University of Maine but again, to be useful, should have explored them more critically and theoretically. Perhaps the inclusion of the Occupy movement, particularly the debate around free education and plans for an Occupy University, would have made this section more relevant to readers around the world. The question is, indeed, How can we think a utopia that is radical and meaningful? As Jameson puts forward, “We have seen that there is a way in which postmodernism replicates or reproduces—reinforces—the logic of consumer capitalism; the more significant question is whether there is also a way in which it resists that logic.”¹ Segal’s answer seems to be that utopia and utopianism need to launch thought experiments from “the scientific and technological plateau” (234). Not denying the historic and contemporary worries about technologies as progress, Segal would advocate scientific and technological advances to “experiencing alternatives,” that is, via virtual reality, before moving to action and the realization of utopia. Thus, what was once the domain of the literary utopia, the imagining of other worlds, is now the domain of the virtual: “Consequently, utopianism may thus have a bright future after all” (255).

Utopias is a succinct and engaging account of a subject that is notoriously...