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'Fascinating and richly documented . . . Few books manage to be so
informative and so entertaining.' - Sunday Times
Santiniketan-Sriniketan in India, Dartington Hall in England,
Atarashiki Mura in Japan, the Institute for the Harmonious
Development of Man in France, the Bruderhof in Germany and Trabuco
College in America: six experimental communities established in the
aftermath of the First World War, each aiming to change the world.
Anna Neima's The Utopians is an absorbing and vivid account of
these collectives and their charismatic leaders and reveals them to
be full of eccentric characters, outlandish lifestyles and
unchecked idealism. Dismissed and even mocked in their time, yet, a
century later, their influence still resonates in progressive
education, environmentalism, medical research and mindfulness
training. Without such inspirational experiments in how to live,
post-war society would have been a poorer place. 'Thanks to Neima's
rigorous research, each chapter offers something new.' - Spectator
'Neima ranges with impressive confidence across the world'. -
Literary Review
The Utopians is the remarkable story of six experimental communities –
Santiniketan-Sriniketan in India, Dartington Hall in England,
Atarashiki-mura in Japan, the Institute for the Harmonious Development
of Man in France, the Bruderhof in Germany and Trabuco College in
America – that sprang up in the aftermath of the First World War.
Each was led by charismatic figures who dreamed of a new way of living.
Rabindranath Tagore, Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, Mushanokoji
Saneatsu, G. I. Gurdjieff, Eberhard and Emmy Arnold and Gerald Heard
all struggled to turn ambitious ideals into reality. They – and their
fellow communards – left their jobs, their homes and their social
circles. They faced mockery and persecution, penury, hunger and
discomfort, and their own doubts about whether their efforts to change
society would ever make a difference.
Anna Neima’s absorbing and vivid account of these collectives, from
creation to collapse, reveals them to be full of eccentric characters,
outlandish lifestyles and unchecked idealism. They were dramatic,
fractious places where high ideals collided with the need to feed the
chickens, clean the toilets, bring up squabbling children and grow the
grain for the daily bread.
These communities were small in scale and dismissed in their time. Yet,
a century later, their influence still resonates in realms as disparate
as progressive education, environmentalism, medical research and
mindfulness training. They provided, and continue to provide, a rich
store of inspiration for those who aspire to improve the world. Without
them, the post-war world would have been a poorer place.
Dartington Hall was a social experiment of kaleidoscopic vitality,
set up in Devon in 1925 by a fabulously wealthy American heiress,
Dorothy Elmhirst (nee Whitney), and her Yorkshire-born husband,
Leonard. It quickly achieved international fame with its
progressive school, craft production and wide-ranging artistic
endeavours. Dartington was a residential community of students,
teachers, farmers, artists and craftsmen committed to revivifying
life in the countryside. It was also a socio-cultural laboratory,
where many of the most brilliant interwar minds came to test out
their ideas about art, society, spirituality and rural
regeneration. To this day, Dartington Hall remains a symbol of
countercultural experimentation and a centre for arts, ecology and
social justice. Practical Utopia presents a compelling portrait of
a group of people trying to live out their ideals, set within an
international framework, and demonstrates Dartington's tangled
affinities with other unity-seeking projects across Britain and in
India and America.
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