Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-301) and index.

To boldly know where no one has known before : how blue sky thinking can set us free -- Home is where the walls are : thinking outside the single-family box -- Kids as public goods : why the privatization of childhood is bad for families -- The good school : educating the next generation of social dreamers -- Imagine no possessions, I wonder why we can't : how sharing our things can open our hearts -- Shall I compare thee to a violent ape : why our families are nuclear -- You and me and baby makes misery : expanding our networks of love and care -- The Star Trek game plan : how radical hope defeats dystopian despair.

"A spirited tour through 2,500 years of utopian thinking and experiments to tease out better ways of imagining our domestic lives - from childrearing and housing to gender roles and private property - and a look at the communities putting these seemingly fanciful visions into practice today"-- Provided by publisher.