Utopia (From the Novel to Revolution)
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Product Details
Author:
Stéphanie Roza
Format:
Paperback
Pages:
384
Publisher:
Verso Books (July 1, 2025)
Language:
English
Audience:
General/trade
ISBN-13:
9781839767654
ISBN-10:
1839767650
Weight:
15oz
Dimensions:
6" x 9.21" x 0.93"
File:
RandomHouse-PRH_Book_Company_PRH_PRT_Onix_full_active_D20260405T163651_155746738-20260405.xml
Folder:
RandomHouse
List Price:
$49.95
Country of Origin:
United States
Case Pack:
16
As low as:
$38.46
Publisher Identifier:
P-RH
Discount Code:
A
QuickShip:
Yes
Pub Discount:
65
Imprint:
Verso
Overview
THE TRANSFORMATION OF UTOPIA IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, FROM A ROMANTIC IDEAL TO A POLITICAL OBJECTIVE
Until the Age of Enlightenment, utopia was a popular literary genre, but without concrete political effects. However, in the decades leading up to 1789, its status gradually changed from an entertaining thought experiment to a socialist project. Imagining the ideal city took on the task of articulating revolutionary transformation of society towards equality and social justice.
In Utopia, Stéphanie Roza explores the nascent ideal of a community of property and labour, not yet called communism, and the thinkers who engaged with it in the lead-up to the French Revolution. These philosophers included Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, a fierce critic of private property and the mysterious author of the Code de la Nature; the Abbé de Mably, a radical republican and interlocutor of Rousseau; and Gracchus Babeuf, who, from the 1780s onwards, defended the natural right to subsistence and dreamed of a more fraternal world.
Together, they laid the foundations for modern socialist movements. In the crucible of the French Revolution, ‘real equality’ became the goal of a handful of conspirators gathered around Babeuf, who had meanwhile become the ‘tribune of the people’. The Conspiracy of Equals was considered by Marx to be ‘the first active communist party’: the hopes and questions that ran through the group prefigured those of the militants of later periods, including today.
Until the Age of Enlightenment, utopia was a popular literary genre, but without concrete political effects. However, in the decades leading up to 1789, its status gradually changed from an entertaining thought experiment to a socialist project. Imagining the ideal city took on the task of articulating revolutionary transformation of society towards equality and social justice.
In Utopia, Stéphanie Roza explores the nascent ideal of a community of property and labour, not yet called communism, and the thinkers who engaged with it in the lead-up to the French Revolution. These philosophers included Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, a fierce critic of private property and the mysterious author of the Code de la Nature; the Abbé de Mably, a radical republican and interlocutor of Rousseau; and Gracchus Babeuf, who, from the 1780s onwards, defended the natural right to subsistence and dreamed of a more fraternal world.
Together, they laid the foundations for modern socialist movements. In the crucible of the French Revolution, ‘real equality’ became the goal of a handful of conspirators gathered around Babeuf, who had meanwhile become the ‘tribune of the people’. The Conspiracy of Equals was considered by Marx to be ‘the first active communist party’: the hopes and questions that ran through the group prefigured those of the militants of later periods, including today.
