cornucopia

The dissertation prospectus is done and has been distributed to all committee members. In a nutshell, my research is about early socialism and its connections to the early social sciences as well as to other kinds of social reform. I argue that the schemes we call “Utopian socialism” were less Utopian than they were attempts to go back to a simpler way of life. In particular, people like Robert Owen, Abram Combe, E. T. Craig, and William Thompson crafted communities based on their ideas about human history– ideas that were informed by their sometimes ambivalent attitudes towards science and progress.

I was so happy to see a panel of experts revisiting this subject this week — turns out, we still dream of going back to simpler times. The panelists on “In the Know, with Clifford Banes” ask, Should Americans Return To A Simpler, Stone Age Lifestyle?