2006: Recent historiographical trends of the British Studies
Rediscovering radicalism in the British Isles and Ireland in the Sixteenth and S

Could “Eutopian politics […] never be drawn into use”? Utopianism and radicalism in the 1640s

Published 2006-07-01

Abstract

A utopian moment and a radical one may have coincided in the 1640s, but they were by no means identical.  Utopian literature was not only the preserve of 'radicals'; instead, utopian writings permeated and were permeated by wider movements for reform, constituting an important strain of reformist literature which proliferated during this period, even though utopias themselves were not found exclusively helpful by those committed to reform, radical or otherwise.