Gregory Claeys - Dystopia: A Natural History

Readers may recall Orwells observation that Writing a book is a horrid, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness (Why I Write, 1946). Thankfully I have had some skilled intellectual physicians to help me through the moments when I thought I might succumb to this one. In particular, a very special thanks is due to Artur Blaim, Michael Levin, Lyman Tower Sargent, and Dan Stone, who made invaluable comments on parts of the manuscript and have greatly improved the final version. I am also grateful to Antonis Balasopoulos; Mosab Bajaber; David Bradshaw; Brentford FC and its fans for helping me see how the beautiful game is like war but so much better; Justin Champion; Janice Cullen; Zsolt Czignyik; Jos Maria Perez Fernandez; Justyna Galant; Diletta Gari; Sam Hirst; Anna Hont; Thomas Horan; Jessie Hronesova; Mark Jendrysik; Marta Komsta; Tom Moylan; Duncan Kelly; Andrew Milner; the Museum for the Political History of Russia, St Petersburg; Patrick Parrinder; Mark Preslar; Emine entrk; James Somper; Sandy Stelts at Penn State University Library; Henry Tam; Ftima Vieira; Luisa Hodgkinson and the interlibrary loan team at Royal Holloway, University of London; the London Library; the British Library; and the Orwell Archive, University College London, especially Mandy Wise. In Cambodia I am particularly grateful to the staff of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), including its director, Youk Chhang, and Deputy Director, Eng Kok-Thay, and Dalin Lorn; and at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Keo Lundi. Parts of the argument have been presented at conferences or seminars at Budapest, Cambridge, Durham, Granada, Grand Forks, Krakow, Lisbon, London, Montreal, Newcastle, Oxford, Pittsburgh, Prague, Sewanee, the European University, St Petersburg, So Paulo, the University of Sussex, and Timioara. I am grateful to audiences for their feedback, and especially to members of the Utopian Studies Society (Europe) and the Society for Utopian Studies (North America). The support of the Leverhulme Trust was indispensable. I am thankful to the Salem Press for permission to reprint passages from Huxley and Bolshevism, in M. Keith Booker, ed., Aldous Huxleys Brave New World: New Critical Essays (Salem Press, 2014), pp. 91107. At Oxford University Press I am grateful to Cathryn Steele and Hollie Thomas. Elizabeth Stone was an astute and helpful copy-editor. As always, my wife and family have been supportive and endlessly patient. Finally, thanks to Christopher Duggan, whose life was cut short tragically before the book was finished, for twenty years of friendship and encouragement.