Make Up Blog - Carr's 20 Years Crisis Ch 1

In the first chapter of his book, Twenty Years Crisis, E H Carr neatly divides political scientists into utopians and realists. His strong rejection of utopianism as a means of accomplishing anything is followed by his belief that utopia ends where realism begins. According to Carr, the realist approach to international is a more effective and concrete manner of reaching solid ground where as utopian thinking is simply wishful and imaginary. Although Carr does believe that the initial utopian stage of thinking is perfectly natural, he provides examples from the middle ages and the nineteenth century to prove how pure utopianism is insufficient to meet objectives.

Upon reading the first chapter, I find myself unable to find flaw in Carr’s argument. He says at the end of the chapter, ‘Utopia and reality are thus the two facets of political science. Sound political thought and sound political life will be found only where both have their place’. He also believes that there are certain points in time where ‘utopianism must be invoked to counteract the barrenness of realism’. To me, it seems that Carr adopts a middle path – a path where utopian thought is natural and often necessary in the unfruitful areas of realism, but at the same time, it is insufficient on its own.

 I also agree with Carr’s belief that the League of Nations was the result of utopian thinking. After all, the idea of an institution led world towards peace and prosperity was proposed by the USA, only to be followed with its downfall due to the voluntary self - exclusion of USA from the LON.

Overall, Carr’s systematic critique of utopianism through the use of examples was an enjoyable and thought provoking read.