Utopia: From the Novel to Revolution

(Paperback)

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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, Stphanie 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 tienne-Gabriel Morelly, a fierce critic of private property and the mysterious author of the Code de la Nature; the Abb 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.

Reviews

In this important and innovative book, Stphanie Roza sheds light on the intellectual origins of revolutionary utopia. Focusing on three important but too little-known figures, she offers an insightful and fresh approach to the radical Enlightenment. * Antonie Lilti, author of The World of the Salons: Sociability and Worldliness in Eighteenth-Century Paris *
Stphanie Roza's work fills a conspicuous gap in the history of utopia, describing and analyzing a relatively overlooked moment in its intertwined genealogy. * Alex Bellemare, Acta fabula *

Author Bio

Stphanie Roza is a researcher in political philosophy affiliated with CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) and the cole Normale Suprieure de Lyon. Her expertise lies in the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and their legacy in socialist and leftist movements during the 19th and 20th centuries. She has published (in French) La gauche contre les Lumires, Lumires de la gauche, and recently Le marxisme est un humanisme. Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Lukcs, deux philosophies pour lhumanit (1923-1975). She is currently overseeing the complete works edition of Babeuf.