Utopian Thinking in the 16th Century – NEW!

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In this module, students examine utopian thinking between the late 1400s and the early 1600s among people in Europe, the Americas, and sub-Saharan Africa. Over two weeks, students learn three sets of skills to assess the opportunities and limitations of utopian thinking as humans faced major changes that transformed their assumptions about politics, economics, and the cosmos. They will explore how we can read utopian writings and real-life utopian experiments historically to understand the creative possibilities they offer to challenge humans’ understandings of and assumptions about the world, and the limits of those imaginations.

Original version authored by Jesse Spohnholz

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Readings and Primary Sources

Before the Module:

• Utopian-Thinking-0.0-Module lesson plan
• Utopian-Thinking-0.1-Schedule at a glance
• Utopian-Thinking-0.3-Introduction-Reading

Lesson 1: 

• Utopian-Thinking-1.1-Reading 1-Utopian visions in the 15th century
• Utopian-Thinking-1.2-Primary-Sources-1

Lesson 2: 

• Utopian-Thinking-2.1-Reading 2-Utopianism in an early globalized world
• Utopian-Thinking-2.2-Primary-Sources-2

Lesson 3: 

• Utopian-Thinking-3.1-Reading 3-Utopian experiments in an emerging global order

Lesson 4: 

• Utopian-Thinking-4.1-Reading-Conclusion
• Utopian-Thinking-4.2-Primary-Sources-3-Optional