The Landscapes of Modern Conservative Utopias in the United States: potentials for archaeological and spatial analysis

Summary

This paper introduces the session, and as a case study, explores utopias and utopian plans inspired by conservative thinking and principles as examples of spatial play and landscape experimentation. The growth of the internet has allowed for the proliferation of like-minded communities as well as the broadcasting of political ideologies and proposals. During the 2000s, anti-government enthusiasm proliferated into a number of proposals for separatist communities within the United States, founded on visions of conservatism, free-market principles, firearms enthusiasm, and more. I utilize maps, accounts, and documents to show conservative utopias as both embodying similar principles  socialist or utopias. At the same time, I argue that such communities enact similar contradictions inherent in all utopias, and that the continuation of concerted conservative political growth will obviate the need for such separatist spaces.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Excavating reaction and regression: American conservatism in Material perspective   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 447