Introducing a world defined by these qualities is of course vastly different from merely imagining their presence. No-one will escape its consequences, including billionaire Mars fanatics and prepper bunker-diggers.

For its French counterpart, Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s L’an 2440, rêve s’il en fut jamais (1771), which Koselleck terms the “first futuristic novel”. The change in our behaviour which is implied by any programme which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to sustainable levels within a decade — which is what is required — is in itself revolutionary, though not in the Marxian sense. Whether we look to the Colorado, the Rhein, the Rhone or the Yangtze rivers, or the Great Salt Lake, dramatic water shortages are now imminent.It was during the eighteenth century, moreover, that ideas of unlimited economic growth and the virtues and vices of consumption helped shape debates over political economy, often couched in the language of luxury – they soon became a central focus of utopian thinkers. An inability to think beyond the short term – to “look up”, as we would now say – is one of the greatest barriers to our ability to save the planet. When self-styled ‘realists’ respond to looming environmental collapse by defending business as usual, utopian thinking becomes itself a form of realism.

In the degree to which we achieve it, the dominant principles of dystopia, loneliness and fear, are reduced (73). A timely rethinking of the usefulness of the utopian tradition in the light of climate change and the consequent necessity to add in sustainability as one of its essential components. The change in our behaviour which is implied by any programme which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to sustainable levels within a decade – which is what is required – is in itself revolutionary, though not in the Marxian sense.Keywords: Utopia; Consumerism; Wealth; Clothing; Utopian studies; Save the Planet; Atheism; Counterculture; The Revenge of Gaia; Ecovillage; Future of the Earth; Progressivism; New Utopia; Planetes; Thorstein Veblen; Celebrity; End of history; Astrology; Restitution; Commodity; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Fossil-fuel power station; Imaginary voyage; Slavery; Utopian and dystopian fiction; James Tully (philosopher); Ecocide; Science fiction; Environmentalist; World peace; Fossil fuel; Marxism; The Angel of the Revolution; Environmental economics; Age of Enlightenment; Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft; Totalitarianism; Facebook; Utopian socialism; The Last Stage; Gnosticism; Libertarian Party (United States); Nuclear power; Science fiction studies; Reincarnation; Nuclear winter; Ethos; Epicureanism; Retirement; Greenhouse gas; Theory; Veganism; Conspiracy theory; Physiocracy; Nuclear weapon; Pensioner; Maxwell's demon; Capitalism; Liberal democracy; Job guarantee; Karl Mannheim; Theodor W. Note: The post gives the views of its authors, not the position USAPP– American Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics. Part Two then surveys the history of the tradition to identify problems of the wider strategy of promoting sustainability by looking at which variants of the tradition have been most successful in promoting a reduction of wants without entailing personal misery on their populations. This book is a milestone in his career-long quest to make sense of utopianism, its past and its future, its dangers and its possibilities.

Of course, there were utopian texts – Huxley’s Island (1962) is a famous example – that challenged the value of technoscientific visions of society.

Women, who possess considerably more power than men in disposing of household budgets, need full choice over their reproductive capacities, which will reduce family sizes. He contends that liberalism and socialism have important lessons for contemporary utopianism, but that both traditions need to be superseded, insofar as they largely remain committed to visions of incessant economic growth. The McDonaldization of Society (9th edn, Sage Publications, 2019)] places a premium on quantity over quality, and haste (‘fast food’) and instant gratification over sociability and delayed satisfaction. Rather, what will have to be jettisoned in the name of human survival can be compensated for by the development of a more satisfying, rounded form of life. Claeys’s analysis is more even-handed in the sense that he provides thorough coverage of the development of utopianism from the early modern period into the present.