Everyday Utopia: Better Ways of Living Equally

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An uplifting look at communal living from a trail-blazing anthropologist Throughout history and around the world today, forward-thinking communities have pioneered alternative ways of living together, sharing property and raising children. In Everyday Utopia, anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee explores what we can learn from these experiments - from the ancient Greek commune founded by Pythagoras to the trail-blazing feminists of the French Revolution, from the cohousing movement in contemporary Denmark to the flourishing ecovillages of Colombia and Portugal. She shows why utopian thinking is essential to making a fairer world and that many of the best ways of getting there begin at home.

Reviews

History is made by the dreamers ... A must-read -- THOMAS PIKETTY, author of A Brief History of Equality
Just wonderful -- ANGELA SAINI, author of The Patriarchs
This warm, intelligent and lucid book takes us on a deep dive into how people have created better systems for living systems that actually work -- ROBERT WALDINGER, author of The Good Life and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development
Exhilarating. A powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project but also a very serious political one -- REBECCA TRAISTER, author of Good and Mad
Kristen Ghodsee is back with another splendid insight: utopia can and ought to be an everyday thing. In every home. Invigorating writing for a cheerless era -- YANIS VAROUFAKIS, author of Technofeudalism

Author Bio

Kristen Ghodsee is a feminist ethnographer and the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism. She is professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for her work in anthropology and cultural studies. Her articles and essays have appeared in many publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post.