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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 75
... never realized the many obstacles and pitfalls ahead , especially as I had set myself a number of targets : to provide the general pub- lic with information , to write a textbook for students of the communal experi- ence , and to ...
... never attracted settlers , was rejected by the local population and disintegrated within four years . During the 1870s and 1880s individual socialists and groups from Europe attempted unsuccessfully to establish collective settlements ...
... never had any impact , but a few serious ones did , and they influenced political thought and actions . Gronlund , Bellamy and William Dean Howells all for- mulated communal solutions to social problems . Bellamy's Looking Back- wards ...
... never became a focus of influence , nor did Sunrise , the anarchist commune in Michigan , founded during the Depression years . The study of the history of communes in the United States and their affinity to American origins observes ...
... never ate any pork.15 Between 1725 and 1732 Beissel continued to live in his cabin in Conestoga Forest but was simultaneously the spiritual leader of a growing community of Baptists . In 1728 he published his first theological book in ...
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 |