The Obsolete Necessity

The Obsolete Necessity greatly expanded the canon of utopias during their Golden Era. Roemer examines insights offered about American attitudes ranging from equality and technology to gender and religion. The new Introduction incorporates insights from an expanded canon and concludes with speculations about creating "influential" scholarship.

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«The republication of Ken Roemer’s 1976 classic reaffirms how necessary, and non-obsolete, this book and expressions of utopia remain. Roemer’s engaging introduction reviews the career of a foundational scholar-teacher, and reassesses the life of a book, written during times of national unrest, that captured the aspirations of American modernity. This fine reissue is timely as, of necessity, u/dystopian speculation flourishes anew.»


(Jennifer A. Wagner-Lawlor, Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Penn State University, Editor, Utopian Studies)





«Ken Roemer’s Obsolete Necessity is simply foundational for scholars of utopias and utopianism. I’ve learned from it and assigned it countless times in courses from first-year writing to graduate seminars, and will continue to do so forever. There is no better, clearer introduction to America-as-utopia or to ways of thinking through national identity formation in utopian literature from its most fertile two decades at the end of the nineteenth century.»


(Peter Sands, Director UWM Honors College, University of Wisconsin / Milwaukee, Editor, H-UTOPIA)





The Obsolete Necessity expanded the canon of American utopias during their print-culture Golden Era from 40 to more than 160 works. What were the natures and impacts of these fictions? Were they accurate indices to the desires and fears of Americans? Roemer uses a combination of biographical research, innovative statistical content analyses, and cultural/historical contextualizations to address these questions. He demonstrates how the utopists’ concepts of time, space, and the potential to transform individuals shaped their visions of economies, religion, cities, and women, as well as daily life. Throughout, Roemer emphasizes tense combinations of old and new, and hopes and fears. The new Introduction defines how the utopias are relevant/irrelevant today, incorporates insights from Lyman Tower Sargents’s further expansion of the canon, articulates a theory of culture, and concludes with speculations about the creation of «influential» scholarship.