Ever since Berliners breached their wall, bringing down with it the whole edifice of state socialism, pundits have been proclaiming the death of Utopia. But, as this book shows, communism is by no means the only fruit of utopian thought. All modern political institutions, including the American democracy and the European Community, have rootes in Utopia. Indeed, many familiar objects and ideas, fron cornflakes to Central Park, from birth control to the Panama Canal, were first imagined or enacted in Utopia. Today, the adjective utopian connotes impracticality, but this book reveals how utopians, far from being idle dreamers, have succeeded in changing the world in ways both trivial and profound.