Utopia and the Ideal Society: A Study of English Utopian Writing 1516-1700

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Cambridge University Press, Jul 28, 1983 - History - 440 pages
While great interest has been shown recently in the nature of utopian thought and its significance in western development, much of the discussion has been marked by imprecision and generality. This book opens with an attempt to give clarity, substance and precision to the definition of utopia by isolating its characteristics in contrast with those of other forms of ideal society. The value of these distinctions is shown in a detailed re-examination of the sixteenth-century European writers who developed the re-emergent form of utopia. As a whole, the book brings the discussion of utopian thought closer to the mainstream concerns of the history of political ideas, and provides a major study for all those working in the fields of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century political and social thought.

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Contents

Utopia and the ideal society in search of a definition
11
The reemergence of utopia Sir Thomas More
41
The reemergence of utopia the European experience 15211619
63
Robert Burton and the anatomy of utopia
85
Sir Francis Bacon and the ideal society
105
Samuel Gotts New Jerusalem
139
Gerrard Winstanley and the Restoration of True Magistracy
169
James Harringtons Oceana
205
The Harringtonians
241
Royalism and utopia
277
The fullemployment utopia of seventeenth century England
299
Conclusion
369
Bibliographies
389
Index
419
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