Utopia 1516-2016: More’s Eccentric Essay and Its Activist Aftermath

This year marks the five-hundredth anniversary of Thomas More’s widely influential book Utopia, and this volume brings together a number of scholars to consider the book, its long afterlife, and specifically its effects on political activists over the centuries. In addition to thorough studies of Utopia itself, and appraisals of More’s relationship with Erasmus, the book presents detailed studies of the effect of Utopia on early modern England and the Low Countries, as well as philosophical reflections on ideology and the utopian mind, and much more.

Han van Ruler is professor of Intellectual History of the Renaissance and the Baroque at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is general editor of Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History and scientific director of the Dutch Research School of Philosophy. Van Ruler co-edited the Dictionary of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Dutch Philosophers (Thoemmes, 2003) and has made numerous modern editions of seventeenth-century philosophical sources. He is presently preparing a book on Erasmus’ impact on moral philosophy.
Giulia Sissa holds a joint appointment in Political Science and Classics at the University of California Los Angeles. She is the author of numerous books and articles on the history, anthropology and philosophy of the ancient world, including: Greek Virginity (Boston, Harvard UP, 1990); Sex and Sensuality in the Ancient World (Yale UP, 2008) and La Jalousie. Une passion inavouable (Paris, Odile Jacob, 2015). Sissa is currently working on the quest for the best government, from Athens to Utopia.