18 books like A Dream of John Ball / A king's Lesson
Smoky crusade
Shares: Labor, Working class, History
Le droit à la paresse
The Right to be Lazy is an essay by Cuban-born French revolutionary Marxist Paul Lafargue, written from his London exile in 1880. The essay polemicizes heavily against then-contemporary liberal, conservative, Christian and even socialist ideas of work. Lafargue criticizes these ideas from a Marxist perspective as dogmatic and ultimately false by portraying the degeneration and enslavement of…
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The man who ended war
The Secretary of War of the United States receives a letter sent to his and all other nations, declaring that war has too long devastated the earth and the time has come for peace. It orders them to destroy their weapons of warfare and disband their militaries. The letter ends: "One year from this date will I allow for disarmament and no more. At the end of that time, if no heed has been paid to…
Shares: Utopias, Science Fiction
News from nowhere, or, An epoch of rest, being some chapters from a utopian romance
"Written in 1890, at the close of William Morris's most intense period of political activism, News from Nowhere is a compelling articulation of his mature views on art, work, community, family, and the nature and structure of the ideal society. A utopian narrative of a future society, it is also an immensely entertaining novel.".
"This Broadview edition includes a wide variety of contextualizing…
Shares: Utopias, Great Britain, Science Fiction
The Dragon and the Raven
For many years England was assailed by Danish hordes whose barbarians reduced the Saxons to pitiable legions of disconnected and ravished communities. In the later 800's A.D. a man named Alfred emerged from the darkened European scene and by his wisdom and knowledge and bravery, he gathered together an army of valorous warriors who banished the Vikings back to the North. This true historic tale…
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Looking Backward from 2000 to 1887
This book is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; it was first published in 1888. According to Erich Fromm, Looking Backward is "one of the most remarkable books ever published in America".
Shares: Utopias, Science Fiction
In the days of the comet
H. G. Wells, in his 1906 In the Days of the Comet uses the vapors of a comet to trigger a deep and lasting change in humanity's perspective on themselves and the world. In the build-up to a great war, poor student William Leadford struggles against the harsh conditions the lower-class live under. He also falls in love with a middle-class girl named Nettie. But when he discovers that Nettie has…
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The Coming Race
The Coming Race, an early science-fiction work, with its superman race the Vril-ya descended from the same ancestors as the great Aryan family, from which in varied streams has flowed the dominant civilization of the world spawned a occult secret society known as the Vril Society or Luminous Lodge - its philosphy and swastika symbol profoundly influenced the Nazis. Please Note: This book has…
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Radical Soldier's Tale
First published in 1988, The Radical Soldier’s Tale is both an introduction to and a transcript of his ‘Memoirs’, written after his retirement in 1881. In this autobiography he presents his life as a soldier during the Sikh Wars, his life as a policeman, and the ideologies which divided people from each other in the societies he had known and read about. Carolyn Steedman introduces the ‘Memoirs’…
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Player Piano
Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut - wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.
Shares: Utopias, Science Fiction
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair's dramatic and deeply moving story exposed the brutal conditions in the Chicago stockyards at the turn of the nineteenth century and brought into sharp moral focus the appalling odds against which immigrants and other working people struggled for their share of the American dream. Denounced by the conservative press as an un-American libel on the meatpacking industry, the book was…
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A Modern Utopia
Imagine a life without worries. You live in a perfect environment untouched by pollution. You have a job to do and play an important role in society. The politicians are watching out for your best interest. And, you get along with your neighbors. Wells’ utopia may not only be unattainable, it may be detrimental to humanity’s progress. Decide for yourself as you read this classic quest for social…
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Our Man in Havana
Wormold's daughter had reached an expensive age - so he accepted a mysterious Englishman's offer of extra income. All he has to do is run agents, file reports, and spy. But his fake reports have an alarming tendency to come true.
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A strange manuscript found in a copper cylinder
Four men aboard a boat find the titular strange manuscript in a cylindar floating in the sea. It turns out to be the story of Adam More, a sailor stranded in a savage hidden country in Antarctica. In this "nation" are everything from cannibals to kings and the bizarre citizens love death and poverty as other nations love life and prosperity. Can Adam escape...?
Shares: Utopias, Science Fiction, History
The Anti-Death League
Amid preparations for Operation Apollo, secret agent Brian Leonard meet James Churchill who has "gone round-the-bend for a parole from the mental ward," "a widowed beauty ..., an unfocused psychiatrist, an unbelieving chaplain, and a charming alcoholic."--Container.
Shares: Utopias, Great Britain
Lord of the World
As creeping secularism and godless humanism triumph over traditional morality, it creates a world that has been divided into three powerblocks, where religious doctrine is not tolerated and euthanasia is practiced widely. In Britain, the Royal Family has been deposed; institutions of higher learning have been closed, and a politician intent on power in the name of peace is intent on the…
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Blue remembered Earth
One-hundred-and-fifty years from now, the moon and Mars are settled, and colonies stretch all the way out to the edge of the solar system. But something has come to light on the Moon--secrets that could change everything--or tear this near utopia apar
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The Hand Of Justice
For the twentieth anniversary of the start of the Matthew Bartholomew series, Sphere is delighted to reissue all of the medieval monk's cases with beautiful new series-style covers.------------------------------------The winter of 1353 has been appallingly wet, there is a fever outbreak amongst the poorer townspeople and the country is not yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the plague. The…
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