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.
