Everyday Utopia

In Praise of Radical Alternatives to the Traditional Family Home

By: Kristen Ghodsee

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan

The traditional 'nuclear' family home is a problem: it places unfair and unnecessary burdens on women (and men too), it entrenches inequalities, it entraps us financially and it hinders certain kinds of child development. Also, it doesn't seem to make us very happy.

And yet throughout history and around the world today, forward-thinking communities have pioneered alternative ways of living - from the all-female 'beguinages' of medieval Belgium to the matriarchal ecovillages of contemporary Colombia; from the ancient Greek commune founded by Pythagoras, where men and women lived as equals and shared property, to present-day Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra 'alloparents' to help raise children not their own. Some of these experiments burned brightly and briefly; others are living proof of what is possible.

Everyday Utopia upends our assumptions and raises our sights by gathering these and many more inspiring examples together, arguing that many of the most important and effective ways of changing our lives and the world are to be found in the home. The result is a radically hopeful and practical vision of more connected - and contented - ways of living.

©2023 Kristen Ghodsee (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

History is made by the dreamers ... A must-read (THOMAS PIKETTY)

Utopia can and ought to be an everyday thing. In every home. Invigorating writing for a cheerless era (YANIS VAROUFAKIS)

Liberating and inspirational ... Kristen Ghodsee's sweeping feminist history of society at its most creative (ADA CALHOUN, author of Why We Can't Sleep)