SOURCE: An excerpt from The Story of Utopias, 1922. Reprint by The Viking Press, 1962, pp. 196-211.

In the following excerpt from his survey of Utopian thought, Mumford discusses the place of social myth in utopianism, focusing on the Renaissance ideal of the Country House: "the chief pattern by means of which the mediaeval order was transformed into the modern order. "

To understand the utopia of the Country House we must jump back a few centuries in history.

Anyone who has ranged through the European castles that were built before the fourteenth century will realize that they were no more built for comfort than is a modern battleship. They were essentially garrisons of armed men whose main occupation was theft, violence, and murder; and every feature of their environment reflected the necessities of their life. These castles would be found beetling a cliff or a steep hill; their walls and...