false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173644181m/311062.jpg 311062 1 As laissez-faire market forces sweep the globe and the earth's future seems endangered, the dream of living in concert with nature and with one another is increasingly essential. A common human longing throughout history, the utopian community ideal has taken root firmly in America over the past 200 years. In Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America, Joel Sternfeld looks at 60 representative historic or present American utopias. Neither a conventional history nor a conventional book of photography, Sweet Earth brings together what might otherwise seem disparate, individualized social phenomena and makes visible the community of communities. This tradition of thinking has ancient, universal precedents. When Thomas More wrote Utopia in 1516, he gave a name to an idea that had included the Epic of Gilgamesh, Plato's Republic and the Old Testament's and he started an argument. Francis Bacon (who believed in utopia through science) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (utopia through nature) soon joined the debate, but it was the harsh changes in daily life engendered by the factory systems of the early Industrial Revolution that brought an urgency to the discussion, as seen in the writings of David Owens, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels. While the early social theorists were largely European, it was in the fluid environment of young America that true utopian communities were built and utopian experimentation flourished. In the years between 1810 and 1850, hundreds of secular and religious societies bravely tried to build a "perfect" life for their members. In the 20th century, experimentation began again, reaching a fever pitch in the turbulent days of the Vietnam War. Some of the late-1960s communes still survive and continue to flourish. The 1990s and the early years of the new millennium have become yet another hotbed of social experimentation. The co-housing movement is sweeping America with at least 70 communities fully completed and occupied and numerous others planned. At the same time, the rapid global expansion of sustainable communities known as ecovillages has been widely adopted in America. This book by one of America's foremost artists includes a photograph of each community and is accompanied by brief text that summarizes the most salient aspects of the history or organization. A book that functions both as art, as well as a hopeful guide to alternative ways of life. 301991 1 4 2006 Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America total:17|5:9|4:4|3:2|2:1|1:1| 17 70 33 3 3 0 false false Sun Dec 07 21:23:49 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 21:27:46 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Thu Aug 02 16:06:25 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 16:09:10 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 20 06:32:41 -0800 2007 Tue Feb 05 04:32:50 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Thu Oct 22 00:45:38 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 00:45:38 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 03 12:06:53 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 12:06:53 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 01 12:37:03 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 12:37:03 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jul 06 12:03:49 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 12:03:49 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jun 15 21:36:20 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 21:36:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue May 26 15:43:37 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 15:43:37 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri May 15 07:55:33 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 07:55:33 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue May 12 09:16:32 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 09:16:32 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Mar 05 10:14:31 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 10:14:31 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Nov 14 15:04:19 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 14 15:04:19 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Thu Nov 13 12:19:07 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 13 12:19:07 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Sun Sep 28 11:08:25 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 28 11:08:25 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Tue Sep 23 10:57:08 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 23 10:57:08 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Aug 13 15:45:29 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 13 15:45:29 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Fri Aug 08 14:09:04 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 14:09:04 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat May 31 13:08:18 -0700 2008 Sat May 31 13:08:18 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Thu Mar 20 17:00:37 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 20 17:00:37 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=311062