Two Hundred Years of American CommunesTransaction Publishers, 1987 M01 1 - 516 pages The United States is the only modern nation in which communes have continuously existed for the past two hundred years. This definitive history of communes in America examines the major factors that have supported the existence and growth of communes throughout American history. The most impressive survey of the communal experience since the works of Noyes and Nordhoff, it is informed by a deep respect for the human subjects and organizational forms of American communes. The findings in the analytical chapters are of considerably theoretical import beyond the historical narrative. Oved details the founding, growth, development, and sometimes failure of alternative societies from 1735 to 1939: Icaria, Ephrata, Oneida, Shaker, religious, secular, and socialist communes. Extensive reference material cited will assure this work a special place in the archives of the literature on communes. |
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... ideas and aspirations and were accompanied by people intent on social and religious re- forms . Together with the local reformers they extended their activities during the second half of the nineteenth century . 9 A new wave of utopian ...
... idea . The first waves consisted of religious sects that were attracted by the wide open frontiers in which they would estab- lish a society to their liking . They hoped that the religious tolerance and the willingness to absorb new ...
... ideas played an important part , swept the country . The evident success of the intensive settlement endeavors in the first decades of American inde- pendence inspired wide circles of utopians with a belief in man and his ability to ...
... ideas of Fourier in the vision of Albert Brisbane . Fourierism was a comprehensive plan of social reconstruc- tion based on cooperation and harmony . It quickly took root in American cir- cles , mainly among those who had suffered ...
... idea of mending the present capitalist system by isolated patches of communism.26 Realizing that society is a whole ... ideas that emerged in the United States and influenced local events . This period of indigenous communes which began ...
Contents
3 | |
19 | |
The Shakers American Religious Communes | 39 |
Religious Immigrant Communes | 69 |
Robert Owen and the First Socialist Communes | 109 |
Fourierist Communitarian Settlements | 129 |
Oneida Commune with Complex Marriage | 167 |
Icaria The Socialist Immigrant Communes | 193 |
Sunrise and Anarchist Communities | 311 |
The Hutterites A Bridge between Past and Present | 333 |
A COLLECTIVE PROFILE IN A COMPARATIVE APPROACH | 367 |
Ideological Principles | 369 |
Social Activity and Management | 379 |
Education Culture and Rituals | 393 |
The Family and Womens Status in the Communes | 411 |
Economic Assets and Liabilities | 427 |
Victor Considerant and the Fourierists at La Reunion | 215 |
New Odessa A Jewish Commune of the Am Olam Group | 223 |
The Kaweah Cooperative Colony in California | 233 |
Ruskin The Communitarian Settlement in Tennessee | 247 |
Communitarian Settlements and Socialist Parties in Washington State | 257 |
The Christian Commonwealth in Georgia | 275 |
Llano de Rio A Socialist Commune in California and Louisiana | 285 |
Dualistic Relationships with the Outside World | 447 |
Dissolution of the Communes Options or Inevitability? | 467 |
Epilogue | 481 |
Appendix | 485 |
Index of Names | 495 |
Index of Communes | 499 |