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Utopia

Thomas More

Gilbert Burnet (1684)

Thomas More's Utopia (1516), written in Latin, is a foundational work of political philosophy — and the book that gave its name to the whole genre of the ideal society. In Book I the traveller Raphael Hythloday indicts the ills of contemporary Europe — enclosure, poverty, and the death penalty for theft; in Book II he describes the island commonwealth of Utopia, where property is held in common and the citizens live by reason. At once a serious proposal and a playful satire (its very name means “Nowhere”), it has shaped political imagination for five centuries. This is Gilbert Burnet's 1684 translation.

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Contents

1. Book I
2. Book II
   1. Of Their Towns, Particularly of Amaurot
   2. Of Their Magistrates
   3. Of Their Trades, and Manner of Life
   4. Of Their Traffic
   5. Of the Travelling of the Utopians
   6. Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages
   7. Of Their Military Discipline
   8. Of the Religions of the Utopians