04253oam 2200841I 450 991081047290332120230126204743.01-136-72338-21-136-72339-01-283-15100-697866131510010-203-81661-710.4324/9780203816615 (CKB)2670000000094377(EBL)692370(OCoLC)730151696(SSID)ssj0000520870(PQKBManifestationID)12175869(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000520870(PQKBWorkID)10530196(PQKB)11655753(MiAaPQ)EBC692370(Au-PeEL)EBL692370(CaPaEBR)ebr10477557(CaONFJC)MIL315100(OCoLC)730501966(EXLCZ)99267000000009437720180706d2011 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrAmerican utopia and social engineering in literature, social thought, and political history /Peter SwirskiNew York :Routledge,2011.1 online resource (266 p.)Routledge transnational perspectives on American literature ;15Description based upon print version of record.0-415-81687-4 0-415-89192-2 Includes bibliographical references and index.Introduction: life is more important than art or social engineering, eutopia, and evolution -- How I stopped worrying and loved behavioural engineering, or communal life, adaptations, and B.F. Skinner's Walden two -- You're not in Canada until you can hear the loons crying, or voting, people's power, and Ken Kesey's One flew over the cuckoo's nest -- You'll never make a monkey out of me, or altruism, proverbial wisdom, and Bernard Malamud's God's grace -- We better kill the instinct to kill before it kills us, or violence, mind control, and Walker Percy's The Thanatos syndrome -- It can't happen here, or politics, emotions, and Philip Roth's The plot against America.The United States today is afflicted with political alienation, militarized violence, institutionalized poverty, and social agony. Worst of all, perhaps, it is afflicted with chronic and acute ahistoricism. America insist on ignoring the context of its present dilemmas. It insists on forgetting what preceded the headlines of today and on denying continuity with history. It insists, in short, on its exceptionalism.American Utopia and Social Engineering sets out to correct this amnesia. It misses no opportunity to flesh out both the historical premises and the politicRoutledge transnational perspectives on American literature ;15.American fiction20th centuryHistory and criticismPolitical fiction, AmericanHistory and criticismUtopias in literatureSocial control in literatureNational characteristics, American, in literatureExceptionalismUnited StatesSocial engineeringUnited StatesHistory20th centuryPolitical cultureUnited StatesHistory20th centuryLiterature and societyUnited StatesHistory20th centuryPolitics and literatureUnited StatesHistory20th centuryAmerican fictionHistory and criticism.Political fiction, AmericanHistory and criticism.Utopias in literature.Social control in literature.National characteristics, American, in literature.ExceptionalismSocial engineeringHistoryPolitical cultureHistoryLiterature and societyHistoryPolitics and literatureHistory813/.5409355Swirski Peter1963-,874151MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910810472903321American utopia and social engineering in literature, social thought, and political history3944556UNINA