Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a teenager, I thought we could create a perfect world—or if not quite perfect, at least much, much better than the one we are currently destroying. Actually, I still think it’s possible, just a lot harder and a lot more dangerous than I originally thought. I’ve been interested in all the efforts to imagine and create utopias, which sometimes produce hells instead of heavens, ever since. I have evolved (I think it’s progress) from being a high school Maoist to something more mature while watching China’s attempts to improve the lives of its citizens with respect and sympathy.


I wrote

Abolishing Boundaries: Global Utopias in the Formation of Modern Chinese Political Thought, 1880-1940

By Peter Zarrow,

Book cover of Abolishing Boundaries: Global Utopias in the Formation of Modern Chinese Political Thought, 1880-1940

What is my book about?

I wanted to do two things with this book. First, to show how utopian ideas were circulating globally by the…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Utopia

Peter Zarrow Why did I love this book?

This is the OG of utopias—written in 1516 about people living on a distant island. Later writers made up utopias set in the future, but More’s island is still fun to read about. A place where there is no private property, no one desires wealth, all citizens are equal, and all religions are tolerated—though there is no privacy (or premarital sex) either. Nobody knows whether More meant it as satire or longing, or even if we should translate u-topia as “no-place” or “good-place.”

By Thomas More,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Utopia as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in Latin in 1516, Utopia was the work of Sir Thomas More (1477–1535), the brilliant humanist, scholar, and churchman executed by Henry VIII for his refusal to accept the king as the supreme head of the Church of England.
In this work, which gave its name to the whole genre of books and movements hypothesizing an ideal society, More envisioned a patriarchal island kingdom that practiced religious tolerance, in which everybody worked, no one has more than his fellows, all goods were community-owned, and violence, bloodshed, and vice nonexistent. Based to some extent on the writings of Plato…


Book cover of Utopian Thought in the Western World

Peter Zarrow Why did I love this book?

The Manuels give an exhaustive but very readable history of utopian thought from the Renaissance (Thomas More) to Marxism, with backward glances to ancient Judaic and Hellenic cultures. This book explains how and why utopias have been central to Western thought, showing how the utopias of one age seem dystopian in another age (or even their own), presented in wry prose that draws readers into the story.

By Frank E. Manuel, Fritzie P. Manuel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Utopian Thought in the Western World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This masterly study has a grand sweep. It ranges over centuries, with a long look backward over several millennia. Yet the history it unfolds is primarily the story of individuals: thinkers and dreamers who envisaged an ideal social order and described it persuasively, leaving a mark on their own and later times.

The roster of utopians includes men of all stripes in different countries and eras--figures as disparate as More and Fourier, the Marquis de Sade and Edward Bellamy, Rousseau and Marx. Fascinating character studies of the major figures are among the delights of the book.

Utopian writings run the…


Book cover of China and the Search for Happiness: Recurring Themes in Four Thousand Years of Chinese Cultural History

Peter Zarrow Why did I love this book?

What the Manuels did for the West, Bauer did for China. Sometimes we think of the Chinese as eminently practical people, but they had their dreams of perfect worlds as well. And these dreams were not necessarily kept to the world of sleep but found expression in the lives of individuals and communities. The Manuels confronted the fact that dreams fade with a touch of cynicism, Bauer with a touch of melancholy.  

Book cover of Ta T’ung Shu: The One-World Philosophy of Kang Yu-Wei

Peter Zarrow Why did I love this book?

This is modern China’s only full-fledged utopia (mostly written about 1900)—explaining how humanity gradually evolves to get rid of the “boundaries” dividing us by nation, class, race, and gender. It may take thousands of years, but history will create a truly democratic and equal society. Children will be raised in public nurseries, couples, including homosexuals, will enter into one-year (renewable) contracts. In thousands of years, the boundaries separating the species and even the gods will dissolve as well.

By Kang Yu-Wei,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ta T’ung Shu as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in 1958.

This volume translates one of the major works of modern Chinese philosophy and in so doing makes a major contribution to the study of comparative philosophy. The volume contains an extensive introduction structured as follows:

1. Biographical Sketch of K'ang Yu-wei
2. Ta T'ung Shu: The Book
3. A General Discussion of the One-World Philosophy of K'ang Yu-wei


Book cover of The Dispossessed

Peter Zarrow Why did I love this book?

What happens when one of the three best science-fiction writers of the twentieth century imagines how anarchism would actually work at the planetary level? A bit of Kropotkin, a bit of Gandhi, a bit of Laozi, set on a whole planet that is a bit like an Israeli kibbutz. In all, a great story about a scientist faced with difficult choices about individual freedom, social responsibility, the effects of possessions, and the meaning of work, and his extended visit to another planet, which seems like a grander vision of our own.

By Ursula K. Le Guin,

Why should I read it?

16 authors picked The Dispossessed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the very best must-read novels of all time - with a new introduction by Roddy Doyle

'A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again' THE TIMES

'The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day and discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin' Roddy Doyle

'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER

The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific breakthrough which will revolutionize interstellar civilization by making possible instantaneous…


Explore my book 😀

Abolishing Boundaries: Global Utopias in the Formation of Modern Chinese Political Thought, 1880-1940

By Peter Zarrow,

Book cover of Abolishing Boundaries: Global Utopias in the Formation of Modern Chinese Political Thought, 1880-1940

What is my book about?

I wanted to do two things with this book. First, to show how utopian ideas were circulating globally by the late nineteenth century. And second, to show how they played out in China in widely different ideas about politics: not just the obvious anarchism and socialism, but in new ways of thinking about Confucianism and liberalism as well. Focusing on four thinkers, only one of whom wrote a full-fledged utopia, I argue that a “utopian impulse” was key to their political theories. 

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Broken Mirror

By Cody Sisco,

Book cover of Broken Mirror

Cody Sisco Author Of Broken Mirror

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

The books on this list have inspired me to expand the horizons of my imagination and to think boldly about the future. So often, it feels like we’re stuck living with our forebears’ bad choices and our leaders’ cynical and self-serving constructions of reality. In defiance, I write books for people who have struggled to fit in, who look around at our world and imagine how things could be better, and who want to read about realistic but optimistic futures. I write alternative history and cyberpunk to highlight how our cultural, technological, and political choices affect our future and how creating change starts with imagining it. 

Cody's book list on thought-provoking sci-fi novels set in vivid worlds

What is my book about?

A fractured mind or a global conspiracy? Uncovering the truth can be hell when nobody believes you… and you can’t even trust yourself. 

"A fantastic science fiction thriller with a sincere and important message.”—Kirkus Reviews. 

“A breathtaking, deeply dark alternate-history Earth with complex characters, layered worldbuilding, and twist after twist after twist.”—Julianna Caro, Reedsy Discovery.

Broken Mirror is the first volume in a queer psychological science fiction saga that looks at the stigma of mental illness and the hellish distrust and alienation that goes with it.

Broken Mirror

By Cody Sisco,

What is this book about?

Broken Mirror: the start of a smart, complex, and imaginative cyberpunk alternate history saga. Literary science fiction from a fresh, young voice.

In a skewed mirror universe, a mentally ill young man searches for his grandfather’s killer.

Someone killed Jefferson Eastmore. His grandson Victor is sure of it, but no one believes him.

Diagnosed with mirror resonance syndrome and shunned by Semiautonomous California society, Victor suffers from hyperempathy, blank outs, and sensory overload. Jefferson devoted his life to researching mental illness and curing Broken Mirrors like Victor through genetic engineering, but now that he’s gone, Victor must walk a narrow…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in utopian, China, and physicists?

Utopian 72 books
China 630 books
Physicists 45 books