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48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The original Utopia, March 10, 2005
There were utopias before this book that Thomas More wrote in the early 1500s, including Plato's Republic. This, however, is the book that gives us the word 'Utopia.' The book is brief, barely over 100 pages, and only 60-some describe the place itself. That is enough, and makes me nostalgic for the habit of writing briefly and to the point.
It's easy to sum up More's heaven-on-earth in a few words. It portrays a communal, democratic society. It is paradoxically unregulated and tightly regulated - overwhelmingly, More's citizens just want to do what is best for their society, and that covers a remarkably narrow range of possibilities. There are, of course, some who break the laws of the land, and More deals with them harshly. "Harsh" is a relative term, though, and his punishments were hardly harsh in a day when it was a hanging offense to steal a loaf of bread for your starving family. (That's actually the introductory topic, the one that leads up to the description of Utopia.)
It's also a strongly religious society. Religious tolerance is a matter of law, a novelty by the standards of More's day and the standard of his own behavior. 'Tolerance', however, meant tolerance of any monotheism that wasn't too animistic, and certainly didn't tolerate the unreligious.
This translation from More's original Latin is modern and smoothly readable. Even so, I wonder how another translator would have handled some of More's neologistic names, like the unpleasant 'Venalians' who are the Utopians' neighbors. No answer is right, but other renderings may convey more and grate less. Those are quibbles, though. It's a good book as well as being a Great Book, and casts an interesting shadow into modern communism, theocracy, and ideas of the good life. I recommend it highly.
//wiredweird
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A More Perfect Plan..., July 12, 2005
Thomas More, executed by Henry VIII (one of his best friends) for treason, led an illustrious career of politics and letters. Under his friend the King, he served in many capacities - Speaker of the House of Commons, Master of Requests, Privy Councillor, etc. - culminating with the trust of the position of Lord Chancellor, a position in those days matching the prominence (if not the definition) of Prime Minister in these days. More's strong integrity and resolute mind caught the attention of scholars, political and church leaders internationally; it was this same integrity that most likely was his undoing, refusing to assent to the King's divorce and severance of ties binding the English Church with the Roman overlordship of the Pope. Indeed, More was, if not the actual ghostwriter, then certainly an inspiration and editorial aide to the document produced by King Henry VIII against the continental protestants, earning for Henry (and his heirs ever after) the title of Defender of the Faith (historical irony is that this title, most likely not intended to be hereditary, now declares the defense of a faith separated from the one for which the title was bestowed).
While an Ambassador to Flanders, More spent spare time writing this book, 'Utopia'. The very title is a still a by-word in the English language (as well as others) of a state of bliss and peace; it is often used with the context of being unrealistic. 'Utopia' is More's response to and development from Plato's 'Republic', in that it is a framework for a perfect society, or at least perfect according to More's ideas of the time. Penned originally in Latin, 'Utopia' has been translated widely; one of the better translations is by H.V.S. Ogden, in 1949, still reprinted in various editions to this day. Originally published in Latin in 1516, the first English version appeared in 1551, some 16 years after More's death.
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Utopia
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Thomas More writes this as if he were traveling, and meets his friend Peter Giles, who introduces him to Raphael Hythloday, a scholar/traveler with tales to tell.
Hythloday made friends with a prince who outfitted him for a journey. He traveled through deserts and fertile lands. He proceeds to give an account to Giles and More. In an ironic twist, given More's own attachment to Henry VIII, Hythloday states that he doesn't give his information in advice of kings or princes, for to be beholden to them is not a wise thing. He quotes Plato, in saying that unless kings were themselves philosophers, they should never appreciate philosophers.
More argues for public service, which Hythloday rejects as something that other place-seekers will use to bolster their own positions. Then Hythloday makes the startling pronouncement with regard to how a society should be constituted: 'As long as there is property, and while money is the standard of all things, I cannot think that a nation can be governed either justly or happily; not justly, because the best things will fall to the share of the worst men; nor happily, because all things will be divided among a few (and even these are not in all respects happy), the rest being left to the absolutely miserable.'
Hythloday proceeds to give an account of the life of Utopia, where, he says, there are so few laws and so much liberty and equality that virtue is always rewarded, and each person has what he or she needs. He talks about this under the following headings:
Of Their Towns, Particularly of Amaurot
Of Their Magistrates
Of Their Trades, and Manner of Life
Of Their Traffic
Of the Travelling of the Utopians
Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages
Of Their Military Discipline
Of the Religions of the Utopians
'Utopia' is a radical document. It anticipates the modern idea of communism, with private property at a minimum; it is generations ahead in the idea of equality of the sexes and freedom of religion. This may seem a remarkable statement from someone who will go to his death supporting the Roman hierarchy, but in historical irony, had religious freedom been respected in England at the time, More would have had nothing to fear.
'Utopia' was a place of education and free inquiry. Again, More's own life models this - travelers from as far away as Constantinople and Venice, visiting More's home in Chelsea, remarked on the incredible sense of knowledge and respect for reason and learning, not just for the men, but also for the women of the household (More's own daughter once impressed Henry VIII with her Latin training so much he was at pains to find something at which he excelled that he could best her at).
At different points throughout the text, More (speaking through Hythloday) jabs in witty and insightful manner the habits of the day - that kings are often more concerned to fill their own coffers than increasing the general wealth of the nation; that courts are designed to be self-serving and self-perpetuating; that liberties are curtailed not for just and reasonable causes, but often for petty personal reasons.
Some of the ideas, however, are not as modern or enlightened as they might seem at first glance. Utopians' freedom of religion exists only in very narrow bounds of reason - they are all monotheists, and while they might identify this deity with the sun or moon or a good person who died long ago, they are not permitted to speak or attempt to convert others to this idea, without risking bondage or death. Not too Utopian after all...
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More was beatified by Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised by Pius XI in 1935 (it is significant to note that Anglican-Roman relations were at a strained point during these times, and the raising of an English saint who rejected the Anglican construct served at least minor political points, something More would have been able to appreciate, if not approve). The official feast day is July 9.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Utopia, March 6, 2006
More finished Utopia in 1516 against the backdrop of an uncharted New World and an Old World awash with petty rivalries, injustice, greed and corruption, arrogant privileged opulence, hopeless poverty and institutionalized human degradation. More wrote in Latin, the language of the schooled intellectual for so many centuries. When one reads Utopia he cannot help but be struck with the fact that it was clearly the blueprint for twentieth century Communism. In fact, the reader will probably be impressed with how little creativity entered the thought processes of the framers of modern Communism. Utopians happily did not own property, happily wore uniform clothing, disdained wealth, lived in communities strictly regulated even as to minimum and maximum population, ate identical meals, each periodically spent time working the state owned farms, were officially ostracized for not working or otherwise abiding by the uniform social codes, were criminalized for traveling beyond their immediate environs without official state sanction. Certain intellectual pursuits and careers were available only as the state might select individuals for them, seeing this and all social regulation of the individual as being in the best interest of the general citizenry. The state is incorruptible, bribery is virtually impossible, justice is uniformly applied, neighboring states so benefit from the Utopian ways that they are brought under Utopian influence. The desire for political power is understood as mere narcissism, and to seek political power is to at once become ineligible for such power. Given the many straightforward adoptions, twentieth century Communist movements did demand a few glaring omissions from More's communism, which permitted no standing army, for example, and which, underwritten by a broadminded and charitable monotheistic philosophy, protected religious diversity and guaranteed religious tolerance.
Utopians, when informed of western philosophy, technology, science, and religion, are quick to adopt certain aspects and improve on them, not being bound by Old World strictures and myopia. Given More's Christian beliefs, is Utopia, borrowing the words of his Raphael, "considerably affected by the information that Christ prescribed of His own disciples a communist way of life?" Certainly yes, but spell communism with a small 'c'. More was [probably] not dogmatically prescribing the ideal state, let alone a new world order, he was having great fun with an elaborate fantasy of 'Nowhereland'. While using the narrative to offer a great deal of cutting social and political commentary, he finds that such a society is "in many cases perfectly ridiculous" and yet there is no doubt that More finds the Utopian Republic far superior in terms of justice and respect for human dignity and welfare to any of the states of Europe to that point in history. More seems to have thought his state to be a significant advancement from Plato's and his small book is an intriguing and entertaining curiosity.
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