Socialism and (the rejection of) utopia

Abstract

A study of some of the many connections (both conceptual and historical) between socialism and utopia, this article examines the socialist rejection of utopia using the examples of Marxism (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels) and early Fabianism (Sidney Webb and H.G. Wells). Once the concept of utopia is unpacked (as intentional community, a vision of an ideal society, a detailed description of an ideal society, and a literary genre), the socialist rejection of utopia turns out to be (at most) partial, and not always persuasive.

Notes

 1. A. E. Bestor, Jr., ‘The evolution of the socialist vocabulary’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 9, 1948, pp. 259–302, p. 287 and p. 287 fn. 148.

 2. See L. Hölscher, ‘Utopia’, translated by K. Petrak (with N.S. Goldberg and A. Giesecke-Dunham), Utopian Studies, 7, 1996, pp. 1–65, p. 23.

 3. See Q. Skinner, ‘Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas’, in J. Tully (Ed.), Meaning and Context. Quentin Skinner and his Critics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988), p. 39.

 4. See, for example, M. Beer, A History of British Socialism, volume 1 (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1929); Sir A. Gray, The Socialist Tradition, Moses to Lenin (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1946). N. Dennis and A.H. Halsey, English Ethical Socialism. Thomas More to R.H. Tawney (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

 5. For some of those disputes, see L. Kolakowski, ‘Introduction’, in L. Kolakowski and S. Hampshire (Eds), The Socialist Idea. A Reappraisal (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974), pp. 1–17.

 6. See G.A. Cohen, ‘Back to socialist basics’, New Left Review, 207, 1994, pp. 3–16; and G.A. Cohen, ‘Why not Socialism?’, in E. Broadbent (Ed.), Democratic Equality: What Went Wrong? (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), pp. 58–78.

 7. See M. Freeden, Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), Chapter 11.

 8. For a conceptual history, see Hölscher, op. cit., Ref. 2.

 9. Useful discussions include L.T. Sargent, ‘The Three Faces of Utopianism Revisited’, Utopian Studies, 5, 1994, pp. 1–37; R. Levitas, The Concept of Utopia (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990); and L. Sargisson, Contemporary Feminist Utopianism (London: Routledge, 1996), Part 1.

10. See, for example, D.E. Pitzer (Ed.), America's Communal Utopias (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).

11. For the claim, see K. Kumar, Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987), p. 48. For a response, see L.T. Sargent, ‘A note on the other side of human nature in the utopian novel’, Political Studies, 3, 1975, pp. 88–97.

12. See the interesting discussion in E. James, ‘Utopias and anti-utopias’, in E. James and F. Mendlesohn (Eds), The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 219–229. I note rather than endorse this claim about the dominance of socialist utopias in the 19th century. One worry is that ‘non-progressive’ literature is simply neglected by utopists. See P. Fitting, ‘Utopia beyond our ideals: The dilemma of the right-wing utopia’, Utopian Studies, 2, 1991, pp. 95–109.

13. It might even include the boundary case of what might be called the Panglossian socialist, namely a socialist who held that we already lived in the best of all possible worlds. This highly unlikely figure could be characterised not as abandoning the ideal, but rather as fusing the horizons of the ideal and the actual.

14. S. Webb, Socialism: True and False (Fabian Tract no. 51) (London: Fabian Society, 1894), pp. 3–4.

15. William Falla of Gateshead was responsible for a series of experiments, purporting to prove the superiority of (labour intensive) spade cultivation, which hugely impressed Owen. See R. Owen, ‘Report to the County of Lanark’, Selected Works of Robert Owen, volume 1 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 1993), pp. 296–269; and F. Podmore, Robert Owen. A Biography, volume 1 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1906), pp. 268ff.

16. See W.H.G. Armytage, Heavens Below: Utopian Experimentation in England 1560–1960 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1951), pp. 327–341.

17. The experiment appears in lightly fictionalised form (in which the Fellowship of the New Life became the ‘Brotherhood of the Perfect Life’ and the shared house in 29 Doughty Street was moved to ‘Strasburg Square’), in ‘Mrs Havelock Ellis’ (Edith Lees), Attainment (London: Alston Rivers, 1909).

18. A. Besant, ‘Industry under socailism’ in G.B. Shaw (Ed.), Fabian Essays in Socialism, (London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., 1889), pp. 150–169, pp. 154–155.

19. Shaw, A. Besant, ‘Industry under Socailism’ in G.B. Shaw (Ed.), Fabian Essays in Socialism, (London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., 1889), pp. 150–169, pp. 154–155, pp. 212–213. On Bland see E. Hobsbawm, The Lesser Fabians, pamphlet no. 28 of Our History (London: The History Group of the Communist Party, n.d.), pp. 2–4.

20. Shaw, op. cit., Ref. 18, p. 49.

21. Webb, op. cit., Ref. 14, p. 11.

22. Webb, op. cit., Ref. 14, p. 11.

23. Shaw, op. cit., Ref. 18, pp. 33ff.

24. ‘Typically’ since Fabian enthusiasm for the extension of the vote was not universal. Beatrice Webb, for example, did not abandon her initial opposition to female suffrage until 1906.

25. S. Webb, Reform of the House of Lords (Fabian Tract no. 183) (London: Fabian Society, 1918).

26. Letter to Gilbert Murray, 26 September 1903 (‘L.C.C.’ silently expanded); cited in N. and J. Mackenzie, The First Fabians (London: Quartet Books, 1977), p. 289.

27. W. Morris, ‘Fabian essays in socialism’, in N. Salmon (Ed.), Political Writings. Contributions to ‘Justice’ and ‘Commonweal’ 1883–1890 (Bristol: Thoemmes, 1994), pp. 457–463, p. 460.

28. Morris, ‘Fabian essays in socialism’, in N. Salmon (Ed.), Political Writings. Contributions to ‘Justice’ and ‘Commonweal’ 1883–1890 (Bristol: Thoemmes, 1994), pp. 457–463, p. 460., p. 336.

29. On the social make-up of the Fabians, see E.J. Hobsbawm, Labouring Men. Studies in the History of Labour (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1964), Chapter 14.

30. E. Bloch, The Principle of Hope, volume 1 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986), pp. 208–209. The Fabians are mentioned briefly in Bloch, On the social make-up of the Fabians, see E.J. Hobsbawm, Labouring Men. Studies in the History of Labour (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1964), Chapter 14., volume 3, pp. 940f.

31. Shaw, op. cit., Ref. 18, p. 132.

32. Shaw, op. cit., Ref. 18, p. 132., p. 220.

33. Webb, op. cit., Ref. 14, p. 8.

34. Webb, op. cit., Ref. 14, p. 8.

35. Webb, op. cit., Ref. 14, p. 8., p. 9.

36. Webb, op. cit., Ref. 14, p. 8. This commitment to social scientific research also motivated (in part) the founding of the London School of Economics by the Webbs (creatively utilising a legacy intended for the Fabians).

37. See S. Ingle, ‘Shaw, Wells and the Fabian utopia’, The Wellsian, 3, 1983, pp. 16–29.

38. H.G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (London: Penguin, 2005), p. 79.

39. Wells, A Modern Utopia (London: Penguin, 2005), p. 79., p. 194.

40. Wells, A Modern Utopia (London: Penguin, 2005), p. 79., p. 181.

41. Wells, A Modern Utopia (London: Penguin, 2005), p. 79., pp. 99–100. On Wells' anxieties about over-population, see J. Carey, The Intellectuals and the Masses. Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia (London: Faber & Faber, 1992), Chapter 6.

42. Wells, op. cit., Ref. 38, p. 100.

43. Wells, op. cit., Ref. 38, p. 100., p. 117.

44. Wells, op. cit., Ref. 38, p. 100., p. 12.

45. Wells, op. cit., Ref. 38, p. 100.

46. Wells, op. cit., Ref. 38, p. 100.

47. See Skinner, op. cit., Ref. 3, pp. 41–43.

48. The relentlessly negative reading is a popular one. See, for example, B. Goodwin and K. Taylor, The Politics of Utopia. A Study in Theory and Practice (London: Hutchinson, 1982), p. 163; D. Webb, Marx, Marxism, and Utopia (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), p. 1; N. Lash, A Matter of Hope. A Theologian's Reflections on the Thought of Karl Marx (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1981), p. 235; and R.C. Tucker, Philosophy and Myth in Karl Marx (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), p. 201.

49. See D. Leopold, ‘The structure of Marx and Engels' considered account of utopian socialism’, History of Political Thought, 26, 2005, pp. 443–466.

50. Marx and Engels, Manifest der kommunistischen Partei, Marx Engels Werke (Berlin: Institute of Marxism-Leninism, 1957–68), volume 4, p. 491; Marx Engels Collected Works (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1975–2005), volume 6, p. 516. (These collected editions are subsequently referenced as MEW and MECW, respectively.)

51. See Engels, ‘Ein Fragment Fouriers über den Handel’ (1845), MEW volume 2, p. 609; MECW volume 4, p. 643; and Marx, Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie (Rohentwurf), 1858–1859 (Berlin: Institute of Marxism-Leninism, 1953), p. 505; MECW volume 28, p. 530.

52. For the rationale which underpins the first critical judgement, ranking the meritorious original triumvirate over their lamentable followers, see Leopold, op. cit., Ref. 49, pp. 456–461.

53. Engels, Zur Wohnungsfrage, MEW volume 18, p. 280; MECW volume 23, pp. 384–385.

54. See the account of ‘Lucas’ and ‘Mondor’ in C. Fourier, Oeuvres Complètes de Charles Fourier, volume 6: Le Nouveau monde industriel et sociétaire (Paris: Bureau de la Phalange, 1845), pp. 67–68.

55. Marx to Nieuwenhuis, letter dated 22 February 1881, MECW volume 35, pp. 160–161; MECW volume 46, p. 66–67.

56. Marx, Marx to Nieuwenhuis, letter dated 22 February 1881, MECW volume 35, pp. 160–161; MECW volume 46, p. 66–67.

57. See G.A. Cohen, If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), Chapters 3–4. (My reflection on the relation between Marxism and utopianism has been much influenced by Cohen's valuable book.)

58. Marx, The Civil War in France, MEW volume 17, p. 343; MECW volume 22, p. 335.

59. J. Raz, Value, Respect, and Attachment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 10.

60. Marx, Kapital, MEW volume 23, p.25; MECW volume 35, p. 17.

61. Cohen, op. cit., Ref. 57. p. 77.

62. A. Collier, Marx (Oxford: Oneworld, 2004), p. 54. I am grateful to Andrew Collier for prompting me to begin thinking a bit harder about this issue.

63. Webb, op. cit., Ref. 48, p. 34.

64. ‘Briefwechsel von 1843’, MEW volume 1, p. 345; MECW volume 3, p. 144.

65. See J. Beecher, Charles Fourier. The Visionary and His World (Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 1986), Chapter 23; and J. Beecher, Victor Considerant and the Rise and Fall of French Romantic Socialism (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001), pp. 52–57.

66. M. Abenseur (in his Doctorat d'Etat subsequently published as Utopies et dialectique du socialisme) sought to capture what he saw as a historic shift in the nature and function of utopias occurring in the middle of the 19th century. For the discussion, see P. Anderson, Arguments Within English Marxism (London: New Left Books, 1980), pp. 159–163; E.P. Thompson, William Morris. Romantic to Revolutionary (London: Merlin Press, 1977), pp. 786–794; R. Williams, Problems in Materialism and Culture (London: New Left Books, 1980), pp. 202–204.