The New Utopian Politics of Ursula K. Le Guins the Dispossessed

Although Le Guin's masterpiece has never been out of print since its first publication in 1974, so far few critics have commented on its radical political ramifications. In an attempt to address what has been called a striking description of the seductions and snares of anarchist society, the contributors of these 16 articles analyze various aspects of its politics, including the open-ended utopian, post-consumerist, classic anarchist, temporal, and revolutionary, with individual essays' topics including the need for walls, self-reflexivity, ambiguity, pluralism and community, ecological political theory, Marcuse and the fate of utopia in the postmodern, and questions of individual and community. Le Guin provides an ansible response postmarked from Tau Ceti, and the editors provide a fine, if necessarily short list of further readings. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Laurence Davis holds a doctoral degree in politics from Oxford University, and has taught political theory at Oxford University and University College Dublin. Peter Stillman is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Vassar College.