Topics Home African Age of Reason Alchemy Americana Ancient Near East Asia Atlantis Australia Basque Baha'i Bible Book of Shadows Buddhism Celtic Christianity Classics Confucianism Egyptian England Esoteric/Occult Evil Fortean Freemasonry Grimoires Hinduism I Ching Islam Icelandic Jainism Judaism Legends/Sagas Miscellaneous Mormonism Native American Neopaganism/Wicca Nostradamus Oahspe Pacific Paleolithic Piri Re'is Map Prophecy Sacred Books of the East Sacred Sexuality Shamanism Shinto Sikhism Sky Lore Tantra Taoism Tarot Thelema Theosophy Time Tolkien UFOs Utopia Women Zoroastrianism

Sacred-texts home Utopia and Dystopia The dream of a golden age, first expressed by Hesiod, and philosophical writings such as Plato's Republic, has become a recurring theme in literature. Many have attempted to define the ideal society. For some, the dream has turned into a nightmare, a dystopia. This page includes the best of these speculations. Utopia by Sir Thomas More [1516] Mores' work is a fictional travelogue to a country named 'Utopia', which means 'nowhere' in Greek. Looking Backwards by Edward Bellamy [1888] Bellamy's classic utopian vision of the year 2000. Cæsar's Column by Ignatius Donnelly [1890] Donnelly's dystopian novel with a utopian twist. This book contains many 19th century assumptions which may test your limits of political correctness, along with some stupifyingly correct predictions. The Iron Heel by Jack London [1909] Jack London's dystopian vision of a brutal future past.