Imaginary Power, Real Horizons The Practicality of Utopianism

A defense of the radical imagination from a scholar of social movements.

Political theorist and philosopher Richard Gilman-Opalsky’s Imaginary Power, Real Horizons is a tribute to the imagination and to its necessity for liberatory struggle. “‘Impractical’ is the name given to anyone who imagines something radically other than what exists,” he writes. However, many things—such as the abolition of slavery—were dismissed as impractical before they came to be.

In a warm, plainspoken manner, these essays chart the affects of creativity and utopianism through topics as varied as the cyclical nature of popular movements; the international history of May Day; the experience of teaching political theory and Marxism in contemporary China; and the revolutionary aspirations of Free Jazz. The human imagination is a real, world-creating power, and those who would declare otherwise have a poor understanding of history.

Imaginary Power, Real Horizons is a call to action for those who would dare to dream of a society organized by a different logic than capitalism.

Praise for Imaginary Power, Real Horizons:

"As a Marxist, I have to say that to be a communist in today’s world is hard and precarious. Gilman-Opalsky’s Imaginary Power, Real Horizons is a vital source of inspiration to be a communist today and to envision a new utopia based on love."—Kohei Saito, author of Marx in the Anthropocene

"A utopian flight to the North Star of the imagination where the fatal logic of capitalism has been subverted from the bottom up by the riotous abolitionist drumbeats of communist forms of life bouncing off anarchic explosions of free improvisation emanating from outside the stunted chord changes of reality. Radical ideas bubbling up and interpenetrating in a liberating dialectical stew of marvelous becoming. A triple-somersault in the air above mountains where love abounds and every day is May Day!" —Ron Sakolsky, author of Surrealism and the Anarchist Imagination 

"There is a commendable urgency to Imaginary Power, Real Horizons, as we stand today in contemplation of what appears our inevitable demise. Richard Gilman-Opalsky recognizes that ideas have the power to inspire hope for an age in which a just society is a barely tangible flicker. This book is a much-needed shot in the arm.” —Ciara Cremin, author of The Future Is Feminine: Capitalism and the Masculine Disorder

Richard Gilman-Opalsky is professor of political theory and philosophy in the School of Politics and International Affairs at the University of Illinois. He is author of seven books, including The Communism of Love, Specters of Revolt, and Precarious Communism. Gilman-Opalsky has lectured widely throughout the world, and his work has been translated and published in Greek, Spanish, French, and German.