{"collection":"utopia","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/utopia/csus/index.htm","path":"utopia/csus/index.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/utopia/csus/index.htm","text":"One of the persistent themes of US history is an urge to return to the land and\ncreate the 'perfect' society.\nHowever, few besides specialist historians are today aware that\nthere was a huge communal living movement in the mid-19th century.\nThis resulted in a number of functional utopian communities, some\nmore experimental than others.\nOn the whole, though, these 19th century pioneers exceeded the\nwildest imagination of the hippies,\nwith a whole string of prosperous agricultural colonies\nfrom New England to the Pacific.\nThis book is a itself pioneering work on the sociology of communes.\nNordhoff studied and toured all of the major settlements,\nincluding the Shakers, the Amana Colony, the Perfectionists,\nthe Icarians, and other long-forgotten roadside utopias.\nHe includes extensive information on their\nreligious beliefs, poetry, architecture, internal politics,\nliving arrangements and sexual practices.","title":"The Communistic Societies of the United States Index","type":"page"}