Diocletian

First off, Utopia is no place. This title perfectly fits the book, as their was no country (and still is not) that existed that was anything like the one in this book. There were some that had certain elements in common with Utopia, particularly the Incas (who redistributed food stored in public warehouses and did not use money), but More had never even heard of the Incan state. Many of the ideas in this book are outdated (More's apparent sexism) or just plain ridiculous (a modern world without some form of currency). However, despite all of these major flaws, I enjoyed the book. One reason is that I must thank it for basically creating the utopian/dystopian genre of fiction, without which there would have been no 1984. But mainly, it has to do with the political and social ideas espoused in this book. Such "modern" concepts as religious diversity, rights for the poor, an overall anti-war stance (not entirely, however), opposition to most forms of capital punishment, and, despite More's overall sexism, certain rights for women which they did not have at the time. Even with all this however, there are many ideas in this which are extremely outdated or just plain do not work. Unless you are an ultra-communist, you will most likely have major problems with much of this book (as I do). However, do not read it as some communist propaganda piece, as I do not really think that even More held many of these ideas as realistically attainable. It should be read as a criticism of the social and political life of the time and his attempt to illustrate what his dream world would be like. I think what he meant for his work was that people would read his book, see the flaws that he was pointing out, and attempt to fix them, not by creating an impossible Utopia, but by using what is in humanity's power to improve the lives of others.