Making Progress
Pragmatism and Utopia in the Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and John Dewey

“Progress is the realization of Utopias.”
Oscar Wilde
Making Progress presents an imaginary dialogue between the literary works of feminist reformer and utopian novelist Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) and the pragmatist philosophy of her contemporary, John Dewey (1859-1952).
If the terms “pragmatism” and “utopia” seem to the reader as being juxtaposed in an oxymoronic way, this study shows that both concepts intersect in their futurist outlook. Simone Knewitz analyzes pragmatist traits in Gilman’s utopian novels, while uncovering the utopian thinking in Dewey’s pragmatism.
This book argues that the works of both authors converge in their desire for social progress and in their belief that humans should actively engage to shape the future of their community. Gilman and Dewey believed that society was still in the making and that it should be restructured with the power of intelligence.

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