America's Communal Utopias

From the Shakers to the Branch Davidians America’s communal utopians have captured the popular imagination. Seventeen original essays here demonstrate the relevance of such groups to the mainstream of American social religious and economic life. The contributors examine the beliefs and practices of the most prominent utopian communities founded before 1965 including the long-overlooked Catholic monastic communities and Jewish agricultural colonies. Also featured are the Ephrata Baptists Moravians Shakers Harmonists Hutterites Inspirationists of Amana Mormons Owenites Fourierists Icarians Janssonists Theosophists Cyrus Teed’s Koreshans and Father Divine’s Peace Mission. Based on a new conceptual framework known as developmental communalism the book examines these utopian movements throughout the course of their development — before during and after their communal period. Each chapter includes a brief chronology giving basic information about the group discussed. An appendix presents the most complete list of American utopian communities ever published. The contributors are Jonathan G. Andelson Karl J. R. Arndt Pearl W. Bartelt Priscilla J. Brewer Donald F. Durnbaugh Lawrence Foster Carl J. Guarneri Robert V. Hine Gertrude E. Huntington James E. Landing Dean L. May Lawrence J. McCrank J. Gordon Melton Donald E. Pitzer Robert P. Sutton Jon Wagner and Robert S. Weisbrot.