Take-Aways Preface on an Allegedly True Story from the Island of Utopia What It’s About Ideal Society and Ideal State

Historical Background

The Age of Renaissance and Discovery

Thomas More was born into a period of upheaval. In 1478, the year of his birth, the first book was printed in England, ideas were increasingly reproduced and spread, and the Church lost its monopoly on interpreting the meaning of life. More was part of the successful and distinguished middle classes, who started to participate in state affairs and asserted their opinions. He became familiar with the ideals of the Renaissance and humanism, which, embraced by the bourgeoisie, had traveled from Italy via the Netherlands to England: a re-embrace of the values of the classical world, the liberation of humanity from medieval constraints, the search for human freedom and the abandonment of the sterile doctrine of Scholasticism, all of which led to a distancing from the status quo and a possibility for alternative thinking. The Reformation then shook the people’s faith in the institutions of the Church yet again. More rejected a separation from Rome and held with those seeking renewal within the Catholic Church.

As novelties began to enliven the world of ideas, exploration of the New World changed the physical world of Europeans. News of faraway islands, inhabited by “good natives” or “evil heathens,” depending on one’s point of view, sparked people’s imagination. This was fertile ground in which to search out an alternative, reasonable social structure beyond the existing one.

Development

Thomas More was a highly respected, well-established man within his social circles. Yet he dissociated himself internally from this position, searching for the ideal of a better society. He was strongly influenced by his close friendship with the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam: In 1509 Erasmus stayed in London with More and his wife. During this period, More encouraged him to write his famous book, The Praise of Folly, and Erasmus dedicated it to his friend. In his masterpiece, the humanist satirized the contemporary governing and power structures – advocating peace, tolerance and humanity. Utopia owes a great deal to More’s conversations with Erasmus. More wrote the second book of Utopia in Flanders in 1515, while in close exchange with Erasmus, and the first in 1516. Hence, he invented the story of Utopia and its constitution before embedding it into the background story of his visit to Flanders and the meeting of Hythloday. In 1516, the Latin text was published under the title Libellus vere aureus nec minus salutaris quam festivus de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia (A truly golden little book, no less beneficial than entertaining, of a republic’s best state and of the new island Utopia). In 1551, the text appeared in English.