Utopia

• Written in 1516 by Thomas More.
• "Utopia" is derived from the Greek words ou (οὐ), "not", and topos (τόπος), "place", with the suffix -iā (-ία) that is typical of toponyms; henceOutopía (Οὐτοπία; Latinized as Ūtopia, with stress on the second syllable), "no-place-land". In early modern English, Utopia was spelled "Utopie", which is today rendered Utopy in some editions.
• In English, Utopia is pronounced exactly as Eutopia (the latter word, in Greek Εὐτοπία [Eutopiā], meaning “good place,” contains the prefix εὐ-[eu-], “good”, with which the οὐ of Utopia has come to be confused in English pronunciation). This is something that More himself addresses in an addendum to his book Wherfore not Utopie, but rather rightely my name is Eutopie, a place of felicitie. 
• One interpretation holds that this suggests that while Utopia might be some sort of perfected society, it is ultimately unreachable. 

Geography of the Island

• an island 200 miles across
• composed of 54 cities, each containing close to 6,000 households
• a household would have between 10-16 people
• Periodically, the population would be redistributed to have balanced populations 

Major Ideas

• no private ownership of lands/homes
• no locks on doors, and households are rotated every 10 years
• everyone farms, and everyone has one of the following trades: carpentry, masonry, metal smithing, and weaving    
• few ruling officials and priests (who are educated) but everyone is encouraged to become educated
• every household had two slaves, who were chained in gold. Slaves came from criminals and people from outside of the island. 

Values

• a welfare state, with free medical attention
• euthanasia permitted
• no premarital sex (the punishment for it was lifelong celibacy)
• a passport was required for travel
• no lawyers
• tolerant of many religions (moon worshipers, sun worshipers, etc. ) but they distrusted atheists
• husbands and wives were subject to each other