The Utopian Movement

“America itself can be seen as the biggest utopian experiment of all--embodied in the credo of the Land of Opportunity is the promise that it is always possible to reinvent one's relationship to society, work, and nature."

--Michael Kavanagh.

• Utopia was written by Sir Thomas More and first printed in 1516.

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• Shakers – Came to America in 1774
• Established several colonies – the first in 1776 at Nikayuna near Albany, NY.
• Lived off of what they could grow and make.
• Had eighteen colonies at their peak, the last of which didn’t die off until 1960 in Hancock Village near Pittsfield, Ma.
• Finally became extinct due to their emphasis on celibacy (you can’t survive if you don’t reproduce.)

• Harmony Society – Founded the Village of Harmony, Pa. In 1805.
• Moved to Indiana in 1814 and founded another Harmony.
• Sold their holdings to Robert Owen in 1825 and went back to Pennsylvania.
• Founded a third village called Economy.
• Lasted until 1906, and then died out due to celibacy. (Apparently the Shakers didn’t get the memo that too much celibacy kills a clan.)

• New Harmony – Created by Robert Owen.
• Colony of Communistic living.
• Became well known as a cultural and scientific center, and attracted many scientists, educators, and writers.
• Dissolved in 1828, but remained an intellectual hub.
• Home of the nation’s first kindergarden, first free public school, first free library, and first school with equal education for boys and girls.

• Brook Farm – Founded by George Ripley, (A Unitarian Minister), in Roxbury, Mass. in 1841.
• Based on cooperative living. Each member was to take part in manual labor to help make the group self-sufficient.
• Had an excellent educational system, however, they were lousy farmers.
• Only lasted until 1847 due to their inability to turn a profit, and the heavy losses they sustained after the burning of the uncompleted central building. (They didn’t have time to die out of celibacy.)

Other Utopian Books

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776).

Thoreau’s Walden or Life in the Woods (1854).

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland (1915).

B. F. Skinner’s Walden Two (1948).

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (19530.

Bibliography

www.encyclopedia.com/articles/01900.html

www.encyclopedia.com/printable/09172.html

www.encyclopedia.com/printable/20757.html

www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/blutopia.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/shakers.html

More, Thomas. Utopia. Mineola, NY. Dover: 1997.