Kibbutz: Venture in Utopia

Plot

Spiro conducted his principal research during the year 1951. He had previously studied the Ifaluk Indians and was interested in societies in which 'cooperation' plays a large part.In the later edition of the book Spiro returned and observed the changes which had transpired in a decade. On the whole he found the kibbutz a successful social experiment. Highly motivated people who shared common values worked together to build a model of a new society. And this though many even at the time of the height of the kibbuz's influence in Israeli society resented the intrusions in their privacy, collective life required. Spiro saw the transition of a society which had openly identified with Soviet Russia to one which became more cautious in its political outlook. He saw how the wider world, the higher standards of living outside constituted a threat to the kibbutz.