One of the persistent themes of US history is an urge to return to the land and create the 'perfect' society. However, few besides specialist historians are today aware that there was a huge communal living movement in the mid-19th century. This resulted in a number of functional utopian communities, some more experimental than others. On the whole, though, these 19th century pioneers exceeded the wildest imagination of the hippies, with a whole string of prosperous agricultural colonies from New England to the Pacific.

This book is a itself pioneering work on the sociology of communes. Nordhoff studied and toured all of the major settlements, including the Shakers, the Amana Colony, the Perfectionists, the Icarians, and other long-forgotten roadside utopias. He includes extensive information on their religious beliefs, poetry, architecture, internal politics, living arrangements and sexual practices.

One of the persistent themes of US history is an urge to return to the land and create the 'perfect' society. However, few besides specialist historians are today aware that there was a huge communal living movement in the mid-19th century. This resulted in a number of functional utopian communities, some more experimental than others. On the whole, though, these 19th century pioneers exceeded the wildest imagination of the hippies, with a whole string of prosperous agricultural colonies from New England to the Pacific.

This book is a itself pioneering work on the sociology of communes. Nordhoff studied and toured all of the major settlements, including the Shakers, the Amana Colony, the Perfectionists, the Icarians, and other long-forgotten roadside utopias. He includes extensive information on their religious beliefs, poetry, architecture, internal politics, living arrangements and sexual practices.

One of the persistent themes of US history is an urge to return to the land and create the 'perfect' society. However, few besides specialist historians are today aware that there was a huge communal living movement in the mid-19th century. This resulted in a number of functional utopian communities, some more experimental than others. On the whole, though, these 19th century pioneers exceeded the wildest imagination of the hippies, with a whole string of prosperous agricultural colonies from New England to the Pacific.

This book is a itself pioneering work on the sociology of communes. Nordhoff studied and toured all of the major settlements, including the Shakers, the Amana Colony, the Perfectionists, the Icarians, and other long-forgotten roadside utopias. He includes extensive information on their religious beliefs, poetry, architecture, internal politics, living arrangements and sexual practices.