Imperfect Ideal: Utopian and Dystopian Visions

The selections in Imperfect Ideal: Utopian and Dystopian Visions illustrate the best and worst of what can happen when we attempt to mold the complex communities in which we live into our vision of a perfect state. All 23 selections in this anthology challenge readers to question how society should be structured and governed, as well as what kinds of communities are most conducive to human fulfillment, both privately and in the civic arena. Table of Contents The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Ursula K. Le Guin Utopia* Thomas More Utopia Wislawa Szymborska Iliad* Homer The Shield of Achilles W. H. Auden A Paradise Built in Hell* Rebecca Solnit Time Riichi Yokomitsu On the Cannibals Michel de Montaigne The Dream of a Ridiculous Man Fyodor Dostoevsky Mencius* Mencius The Politics* Aristotle A Framework for Utopia Robert Nozick The City of God* Augustine The Jewish State* Theodor Herzl A New View of Society* Robert Owen The Soul of Man Under Socialism Oscar Wilde The Economic Basics of the Withering Away of the State Vladimir Lenin We Yevgeny Zamyatin The Machine Stops E. M. Forster Black Box Jennifer Egan Jon George Saunders Time Capsule Found on a Dead Planet Margaret Atwood Silent Spring* Rachel Carson *Indicates a selection from a longer work.