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The United States today is afflicted with political alienation, militarized violence, institutionalized poverty, and social agony. Worst of all, perhaps, it is afflicted with chronic and acute ahistoricism. America insist on ignoring the context of its present dilemmas. It insists on forgetting what preceded the headlines of today and on denying continuity with history. It insists, in short, on its exceptionalism.
American Utopia and Social Engineering sets out to correct this amnesia. It misses no opportunity to flesh out both the historical premises and the political promises behind the social policies and political events of the period. These interdisciplinary concerns provide, in turn, the framework for the analyses of works of American literature that mirror their times and mores.
Novels considered include: B.F. Skinner and Walden Two (1948), easily the most scandalous utopia of the century, if not of all times; Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), an anatomy of political disfranchisement American-style; Bernard Malamud’s God’s Grace (1982), a neo-Darwinian beast fable about morality in the thermonuclear age; Walker Percy’s The Thanatos Syndrome (1986), a diagnostic novel about engineering violence out of America’s streets and minds; and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004), an alternative history of homegrown ‘soft’ fascism.
With the help of the five novels and the social models outlined therein, Peter Swirski interrogates key aspects of sociobiology and behavioural psychology, voting and referenda procedures, morality and altruism, multilevel selection and proverbial wisdom, violence and chip-implant technology, and the adaptive role of emotions in our private and public lives.
- Sales Rank: #11333910 in Books
- Published on: 2011-04-11
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 6.50" w x .75" l, 1.10 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 270 pages
Review
"Professor Swirski is something of a phenomenon. His publishing record is superb by any standard. His background in European and American literatures is formidable. His style is witty, accessible, and admirably suited to his subject. A great teacher in the university classroom, Professor Swirski uses his pedagogical skills to take the reader via his books through a series of complex subjects on which he is obviously an expert. American Utopia is a superb example of his particular abilities manifesting themselves in a new and original project… a remarkably original contribution to American studies…. there really is no other book out there remotely like it."
-- David Rampton, Department of English, University of Ottawa
"This is a stunning book. Drawing on a rich blend of literary analysis, sociopolitical critique, and evolutionary biology, Swirski examines the hopes, horrors, and illusions of utopian social engineering through the lens of twentieth-century American fiction. Superbly crafted, accessible to the non-specialist, and intellectually exhilarating, American Utopia and Social Engineering should not be missed."
-- David Livingstone Smith, Department of Philosophy, University of New England
"American Utopia will be seen as a superb example of interdisciplinary research and will also find a market in academic circles, using material, as it does, from the biological sciences, neurosciences, the social sciences, literary theory, the humanities, philosophical thought, etc."
-- Arthur Asa Berger, Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts, San Francisco State University
"Professor Swirski’s subject is huge and complicated. Few scholars would even take it up, but he has managed to pursue it with considerable vigor and passion. The result is a book that is sometimes brilliant, usually provocative, and nearly always interesting… Swirski is clearly a first-rate interdisciplinary scholar who is doing important work."
-- Philip R. Yannella, Professor of English and American Studies, Temple University
"In the Sallisen opera, Paavo Haavikko’s Ratsumies says: ‘How can I dare to hope anything, when all my hopes come true?’ Using imaginative examples from American literature as the testing ground, Peter Swirski examines in the same spirit the collective hopes that found their expression in sundry American utopias. What could―what would―happen if they were realized? Stay tuned to this book!
-- Jaakko Hintikka, Department of Philosophy, Boston University
"political and textual assonance of merit".
-- Christopher Hitchens
"excellent… enlightening and thought provoking… Swirski has been long recognized as an important literary scholar and theorist… sure to bear fruit for scholars of politics and literature alike."
-- Journal of American Studies
"utterly absorbing, not to say epic in design and execution".
-- European Journal of American Studies
"innovative and unique mixture of political science, literary scholarship, and evolutionary studies… exceptional and crucial addition to our understanding of not only utopias and utopian fiction, but also social engineering".
-- Review of International American Studies
"What makes American Utopia a special book is the quantity and quality of ideas raised and the zest of the writing".
-- Philosophy in Review
"Swirski is the author of several important and provocative studies, including the From Lowbrow to Nobrow and Ars Americana, Ars Politica, and his most recent offering continues the tradition of incisive, stylishly written, scientifically-informed critique... a vigorously argued and beautifully written testament to just how far in this direction historically savvy, scientifically informed literary analysis can take us."
-- The Montreal Review
About the Author
Peter Swirski is Research Director at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies and Professor of American Literature and Culture at UMSL. He is the author of ten acclaimed books in American Literature and American Studies, among them the bestselling From Lowbrow to Nobrow (2005) and Ars Americana, Ars Politica (2010).
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent study!
By Waclaw M. Osadnik
One of the best books devoted to American culture on the market! Swirski's work excels in elucidating the interplay of politics, history, and political memory of America. In my view, "American Utopia..." must be seen as an exemplary case of interdisciplinary research which combines social sciences, literary theory, philosophical thought, evolutionary and adaptationist theory, and formal methods of textual analysis in order to give the reader a full picture of American cultural history of recent vintage. This is a very solid scholarly work, written in a sophisticated language, but without jargon or "theorese". Methodologically well grounded. I would, and will, place this book on the required reading list for my students.
Dr. Waclaw M. Osadnik, Professor of Literature and Culture, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Mind-provoking Utopias...dynamite and fun.
By Ilkka J
What is the importance of thought experiments and literary utopias for understanding our societies, and do we use them enough on depicting our own reality we are living, or depicting alternative realities which might be more advanced? What kind of different utopias/dystopias have been important and mind-provoking in the history of human thought, and how those might paint the picture of the development of our knowledge and understanding about the world we are living. Why are Plato's and Thomas More's classical formulations of Utopian state of societies still so interesting, and why we should try to ponder our own alternatives as creative visions. May be because that keeps us concerned about our social and ecological state of well being and progress, the trend where we want to progress in the bigger picture of the world of politics and our everyday actions.
Do we want to have quality teachers and advanced pedagogical textbooks enlightening our worlds of visions at schools, not the ones, which make us more stupid and looking back to the world of the Middle Ages! Did you know that many teachers do believe that Dinosaurs and Humans lived at the same time in the Earth? I think this book is a real wake-up call for average people too, not only scholars and students. I was entertained to see the connections between American literature from B.F.Skinner's Walden Two to Philip Roth's The Plot Against America & others, and American politics/culture. Added and combined with the multiplicity of other interesting inquiries with the poignant and critical approach of interdisciplinary scholarship.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
I wanted to recommend this book to all those who are passionate about ...
By hans
I wanted to recommend this book to all those who are passionate about good literature and good scholarship which engage with and even point the way to a better life, in this case Utopia, and share about my experience of this book. American Utopia and Social Engineering is another great work deeply concerned with our society and its future written by Professor Swirski, a Distinguished Professor of American Studies and American Literature as well as Amazon's #1 Bestseller in American History and Criticism. There are five chapters here and a short introduction which ranges over Plato, More, Bellamy, utopia, advertising, evolution, IQ tests, education, and American literature. Professor Swirski follows with critical studies of a number of modern American classics such as B. F. Skinner’s Walden Two; Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest'Bernard Malamud's God's Grace, Walker Percy's The Thanatos Syndrome, and Philip Roth's alternative history A Plot against America. He thoughtfully analyzes them and their Utopian elements, both those fancy dreamed ideas of a better life in a better society and life-costing nightmares which embody social-engineering practices going as far back as Plato’s Republic.
As sharp and unique as always, equipped with broad knowledge of evolution, biology, psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and his literary expertise, professor Swirski brings an ironic (not to say commonsensical) perspective on daily life in American utopia to illustrate the marvelous humanity and philosophical points of views about these five novels and about life in the United States today. But this study is relevant to more than just American readers. Chinese scholar, for example, should read it too while paying vigilant attention to Xi’s Chinese Dream which is prevalent these days in the media for the sake of engineering Chinese society and world peace.
If you want to know more about Skinner’ Utopia or Roth's American Dystopia and how they relate to even pre-Soviet or Mao’s socialism in China, just read American Utopia and Social Engineering--not this month, this week, but today, now. I guarantee you won’t regret it.
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