Everyday Utopia: In Praise of Radical Alternatives to the Traditional Family Home

Kristen Ghodsee

May 2023 · Random House

About this ebook

Anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee looks at pioneering experiments in communal living to present a rousing argument for rethinking what we mean by home.

‘A must-read’ THOMAS PIKETTY
‘Just wonderful’ ANGELA SAINI

Throughout history and around the world today, forward-thinking communities have pioneered alternative ways of living together, sharing property and raising children. In Everyday Utopia, anthropologist Kristen Ghodsee explores what we can learn from these experiments – from the ancient Greek commune founded by Pythagoras to the trail-blazing feminists of the French Revolution, from the cohousing movement in contemporary Denmark to the flourishing ecovillages of Colombia and Portugal. She shows why utopian thinking is essential to making a fairer world and that many of the best ways of getting there begin at home.

‘This warm, intelligent and lucid book takes us on a deep dive into how people have created better systems for living – systems that actually work’ ROBERT WALDINGER, author of The Good Life and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Developmet

‘Exhilarating. A powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project but also a very serious political one’ REBECCA TRAISTER, author of Good and Mad

‘Splendid. Invigorating writing for a cheerless era' YANIS VAROUFAKIS, author of Technofeudalism

‘A vision of what our future could be if we dare to dream’ SUSAN NEIMAN, Left Is Not Woke

About the author

Kristen Ghodsee is a feminist ethnographer and the author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism. She is professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for her work in anthropology and cultural studies. Her articles and essays have appeared in many publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post.