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The dream of the twentieth century was the construction of mass utopia.As the century closes, this dream is being left behind; the belief that industrialmodernization can bring about the good society by overcoming material scarcity forall has been challenged by the disintegration of European socialism, capitalistrestructuring, and ecological constraints. The larger social vision has given way toprivate dreams of material happiness and to political cynicism.Developing the notionof dreamworld as both a poetic description of a collective mental state and ananalytical concept, Susan Buck-Morss attempts to come to terms with mass dreamworldsat the moment of their passing. She shows how dreamworlds became dangerous whentheir energy was used by the structures of power as an instrument of force againstthe masses. Stressing the similarities between the East and West and using the endof the Cold War as her point of departure, she examines both extremes of massutopia, dreamworld and catastrophe.The book is in four parts. "Dreamworlds ofDemocracy" asks whether collective sovereignty can ever be democratic. "Dreamworldsof History" calls for a rethinking of revolution by political and artisticavant-gardes. "Dreamworlds of Mass Culture" explores the affinities between massculture's socialist and capitalist forms. An "Afterward" places the book in thehistorical context of the author's collaboration with a group of Moscow philosophersand artists over the past two tumultuous decades. The book is an experiment invisual culture, using images as philosophy, presenting, literally, a way of seeingthe past. Its pictorial narratives rescue historical data that with the end of theCold War are threatened with oblivion and challenge common conceptions of what thiscentury was all about.