John Carey is an acclaimed critic and editor of the bestselling The Faber Book of Science and The Faber Book of Reportage. In his spellbinding new anthology he charts the course of a host of imaginary societies, combining a broad historical sweep with lively variety. We hear from Homer and Marx, Swift and Rousseau, de Sade and Oscar Wilde, Hitler and George Orwell, Italo Calvino and Julian Barnes. Utopias come in every conceivable cultural - and sexual - shade: communist, fascist, anarchist, green, golden age techno-fantastic, all-male, all-female, all-hermaphrodite. The Faber Book of Utopias encompasses some noble and selfless schemes, lofty in their estimate of human potential. But the history of utopias is also spine-chilling in the trail of folly and tyranny it uncovers. Appropriately for a new millennium, this book presents the hopes and fears of humanity from 4,000 years ago till now.