History 3540 Issues in Technology and Culture: Technology in Utopia
Guy V. Beckwith
Fall 2013
General Description: Throughout history individuals critical of the shortcomings of their own societies have longed for utopia,
an ideal society in which the major problems of human life have been solved. This course explores the role technology plays in
literary depictions of ideal communities. In addition to introducing students to the utopian tradition and its relevance for our
time, the course will help students develop their powers of close reading and critical thinking; and it will heighten their
awareness of the complex relationship between nature, society, technology, and values.
Basic Questions: We will approach each novel with core questions in mind. Does the work address the major dimensions of
human life: politics, the economy, relations with the natural world, education, religion, etc.? Are major aspects left out? To what
extent do the changes and reforms proposed solve the problems of the author’s historical society? What new values, or new
approaches to the formation and communication of values, animate the utopia? Is its overriding goal happiness, or spiritual
development, or progress, or something else? What is the imagined community’s relation to other communities? To nature?
Would the way of life the author paints be sustainable over long periods of time? Does the novel work as a novel, as a story,
with consistent characters, actions, and themes? Other questions will arise out of the historical context of each work, and out of
the author’s unique voice and vision.
Office Hours: 327 Thach Hall, MW 9:30-10:30 am, and by appointment. Phone: (334) 844-6638; email:
beckwgv@auburn.edu Students can ordinarily expect a response to their email messages during the next two business days.
Required Texts:
Plato, The Republic (375 B.C.)
Thomas More, Utopia (1516)
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (1888)
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
B. F. Skinner, Walden Two (1948)
Ursula LeGuin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974)
Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia (1975)
Other readings will be provided.
Examinations and Quizzes: We will have a brief reading quiz after completing each book; there will be no unannounced
quizzes. We will also have three examinations: two in-class exams and a final. The preliminary exams will cover the five weeks
that precede them; the final will cover the material dealt with since the second exam, plus a number of questions drawn from
the semester as a whole. All exams will combine identification and essay questions. Essays must be clear, logical, and squarely
based on course readings and the material covered in class, and must follow traditional essay form. We will use the standard
ten-point grading scale: 90-100 is an A, 80-89 a B, and so on. Grades will never be curved or scaled. If you have any questions
or concerns about the grading of your exams, you must appeal before the next scheduled examination. After that no changes
will be made in exam scores.
Make-Up Tests: Make-ups will be administered only under extraordinary circumstances. If you know that you must be absent
during one of our scheduled exams, please contact the instructor well in advance. No make-ups will be offered for reading
quizzes. If you miss a quiz, with a valid, university-approved excuse, it will count as the score automatically dropped. Other
quizzes missed, in the absence of an approved excuse, will count as zeroes. (See Course Grades below).
No early finals will be given. Students who cannot take the final on the scheduled day and time must present their reasons to
the Dean’s Office and request permission to shift the exam to another time.
Course Grades: The overall grade for the course will include these components: quizzes (best 6 of 7) 20%; exam one 20%;
exam two 20%; final 20%; participation, 20%.
Attendance: Students are expected to attend all class sessions, and to actively and appropriately participate. Attendance will be
counted as part of the participation component of the grade. A legitimate written excuse for a university-approved absence
must be turned in as soon as possible after the absence occurs. Students are responsible for all class discussions and materials,
even if they are unable to attend all class meetings. Medical excuses must include the name and phone number (these must be
legible) of the doctor or medical professional consulted. Unexcused absences will result in a reduction of the participation
component of the grade. A significant number of unexcused absences (in excess of five) can result in a final grade of FA, failure
due to excessive number of absences.
Laptops, etc.: No laptops, smart phones, or other electronic devices, with the exception of those necessitated by medical
conditions, are to be used during our class meetings. Cellphones are to be turned off and put away. Notes are to be taken by
hand. Note: It is the official policy of the university that disruptive behavior of any kind during class meetings is not acceptable.
Students and professors owe each other mutual respect and common courtesy.
Note: Students needing special accommodations, as provided for in the Americans with Disabilities Act, should contact the
Office of Accessibility, 1244 Haley Center, and meet with the instructor as soon as possible. For university policies on
attendance, academic honesty, etc., please consult the relevant pages in the Tiger Cub.
Academic Honesty: Cheating, plagiarism, and/or forging of excuses are serious violations of academic honesty and integrity.
Such offenses will be reported and sanctions pursued according to the procedures provided in the Tiger Cub. Please read the
academic honesty policies and principles provided there.
Withdrawals: Students may withdraw from the course (with a W on the transcript) until midterm (Thursday, Oct 10). To
withdraw after this date you must first see your CLA academic advisor.
Assignments:
Week One (Aug 22)
Week Two (Aug 26-30)
Introduction to the Course
Origins of Utopian Thought: The Republic
H. D. F. Kitto, The Polis, The Greeks (Penguin, 1951), 64-79; Aubrey De
Selincourt, Sparta, The World of Herodotus (Little, Brown and Company,
1962), 117-25.
Week Three (Sept 2-6)
The Republic (cont.)
Week Four (Sept 9-13)
Medieval and Renaissance Developments: Utopia
Arnold Pacey, Mathematics and the Arts: 1450-1600, The Maze of Ingenuity:
Ideas and Idealism in the Development of Technology (MIT Press, 1974), 87115.
J. Bronowski and Bruce Mazlish, Thomas More, The Western Intellectual
Tradition (Harper Colophon, 1975), 44-60.
Week Five (Sept 16-20)
Utopia (cont.)
Week Six (Sept 23-27)
Tuesday: Exam One
Thursday: The Industrial World, Looking Backward
Trimble and Beckwith (narrator), The Industrial Revolution (History
Department Film)
Bronowski and Mazlish, The Industrial Revolution, 307-22.
Week Seven (Sept 30-Oct 4)
Looking Backward (cont.)
Week Eight (Oct 7-11)
The Second Industrial Revolution: Brave New World
Spencer Klaw, Frederick Winslow Taylor: The Messiah of Time and Motion, in
Biggs et al., Readings in Technology and Civilization (Pearson, 2005), 111-21.
James J. Flink, Henry Ford and the Triumph of the Automobile,@in Carroll W.
Pursell, Jr. (ed.), Technology in America (MIT Press, 1981), 163-75.
Week Nine (Oct 14-18)
Brave New World (cont.)
Week Ten (Oct 21-25)
Tuesday: Exam Two
Thursday: The Post-War World, Walden Two
Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, Walden (Signet,
1960), 59-71.
B. F. Skinner, Walden Two Revisited, Walden Two (Macmillan, 1976), v-xvi.
Week Eleven (Oct 28-Nov 1)
Walden Two (cont.)
Week Twelve (Nov 4-8)
The Sixties and Beyond: The Dispossessed
Abraham Pais, Knowledge and Belief: The Impact of Einstein’s Relativity
Theory, American Scientist, Vol. 76, No. 2 (March-April, 1988): 154-58.
Timothy Ferris, Einstein’s Wonderful Year, Science 84 (November): 61-63.
Emma Goldman, AAnarchism: What It Really Stands For, Anarchism and
Other Essays, Third Revised Edition (Mother Earth Publishing, 1917) [on-line].
Week Thirteen (Nov 11-15)
Week Fourteen (Nov 18-22)
The Dispossessed (cont.)
The Sixties and Beyond II: Ecotopia
Caula A. Beyl, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Environmental Movement,
in History of the Organic Movement, 1991 [on-line]
http://www.siena.edu/ellard/historicalrootshttp://www.siena.edu/ellard/hist
orical John Steele Gordon, The American Environment, American Heritage
(October 1993), in Biggs, et al., Readings, 303-318.
Joshua Yates, Abundance on Trial: The Cultural Significance of Sustainability,
in The Hedgehog Review (Summer 2012): 8-25.
Week Fifteen (Nov 25-29)
Thanksgiving Break
Week Sixteen (Dec 2-6)
Ecotopia and Conclusion
Kim Stanley Robinson, Introduction to Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias
(Tor, 1994), 9-11.
Pascal Bruckner, Against Environmental Panic, Chronicle of Higher Education,
Vol. LIX, No. 40 (June 21, 2013): B6-11.
U Sustainability Program, What is Sustainability?
[on-line]
Final Examination: TBA