Utopian Episodes: Daily Life in Experimental Colonies Dedicated to Changing the World

by Seymour Kesten

Overview

Decades before the communes of the sixties, nineteenth-century radicals set up isolated colonies where they hoped to insulate themselves from a corrupt mainstream America. Throughout the country, experimental utopian settlements promised to fulfill the lives of ordinary citizens through abundance, equality, and free education. Utopian Episodes tells why these early, freethinking rebels could never fully achieve their goals, but how their legacy has become an integral part of today's movement for social reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815603818
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	03/15/1996
Series:	Utopianism and Communitarianism Series
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.93(w) x 8.91(h) x 0.85(d)
Lexile:	1230L (what's this?)

About the Author

Seymour R. Kesten is a teacher of undergraduate humanities. Currently, he is finishing a novel set in Brook Farm.

Editorial Reviews

Focusing on three of the best known communal experiments of the 19th-century America--New Harmony, Indiana; Brook Farm, Massachusetts; and Icarian Communities in Iowa and Illinois--provides a rare inside look at dress, work, food, individual activities, and other aspects of daily life. Only in the past few decades have the grandchildren of the communitarians overcome their embarrassment and brought out the old diaries, memoirs, and letters. Like all historians before him, Kesten cannot help but explain why the communes failed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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