Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There - Hardcover

Bregman, Rutger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1408890267 ISBN 13: 9781408890264

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017

Synopsis

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Review:

If you're bored with hackneyed debates, decades-old right-wing and left-wing clichés, you may enjoy the bold thinking, fresh ideas, lively prose, and evidence-based arguments in Utopia for Realists (Steven Pinker, author of 'The Language Instinct')

In this surprising, accessible and often counterintuitive book Bregman explores some brilliant but simple ideas for making a better world (Brian Eno)

This is a Read Now book. Nothing dystopian about this one: a young, practical set of ideas for how the next generation can do better (Jeanette Winterson)

If you're fed up with moaning, you owe it to yourself to read this book (Evening Standard)

Where is the vision, the ambition, the belief? Into this bleak picture drops a book and an author bristling with hope, optimism and answers. Utopia for Realists has taken Holland by storm and could yet revitalise progressive thought around the globe.

Better than that, though, it is not a dry, statistical analysis - although he doesn't shy from solid data - but a book written with verve, wit and imagination. The effect is charmingly persuasive...

Bregman has a vision. And it's a pretty clear one.

The result is a hybrid that's reminiscent of the New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell: lots of compelling anecdotes, backed up with information from an array of surveys and research papers delivered in a tremendously readable style.

But there's also an extra layer of idealism with Bregman, a belief that people are essentially good and that all it requires is a rational analysis of the facts and good governance to make the most profound and lasting changes.

Yes, he is a utopian, but a practical one. He knows there are many problems to overcome, but the first and toughest is the belief that things can change. In that he has made a major contribution. Listen out for Rutger Bregman. He has a big future shaping the future

(Andrew Anthony Observer)

It's a wonderful, well-written book, easily the crispest and least dry explanation of the research and history behind basic income as an idea I've seen in print. The sixth chapter, on the bizarre history of Richard Nixon's 1970 plan for a negative income tax, is worth the price of admission alone (Vox)

I was moved and convinced by Bregman saying we might not achieve Utopia but could find solace in working towards a fairer world ... This book is energetic, passionate and rigorously intelligent. His commonsensical ideas deserve to be gratefully welcomed (Jake Kerridge Sunday Express)

You may not dream the same dreams as Bregman - but he invites you to take dreaming seriously. For that alone, this book is worth a read (Will Hutton Observer)

This is a book stuffed full of ideas, presented persuasively and pithily, but it is also just a part of the new zeitgeist - which is why it is one for today's dreamers and tomorrow's realists (Danny Dorling Times Higher Educational Supplement)

The Dutch wunderkind of new ideas (Guardian)

Book Description:

The Sunday Times Bestseller: a bold, optimistic and internationally bestselling book giving us cutting-edge ideas for how we might reshape society

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1408890267
• ISBN 13: 9781408890264
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336