Imaginary Power, Real Horizons

A defense of the radical imagination from a scholar of social movements.Political theorist and philosopher Richard Gilman-OpalskysImaginary Power, Real Horizonsis 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 thingssuch as the abolition of slaverywere 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 Horizonsis a call to action for those who would dare to dream of a society organized by a different logic than capitalism.