Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"A definitive account
of the Ruskin colonies and of their place in the larger social radical
strivings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. . . .
Well written and solidly researched, it gives us an understanding of an
important quest for heaven on earth." -- Edward K. Spann, author
of Brotherly Tomorrows: Movements for a Cooperative Society in America,
1820-1920
This first book-length study
of the Ruskin colonies shows how several hundred utopian socialists gathered
as a cooperative community in Tennessee and Georgia in the late nineteenth
century. The communitarians' noble but fatally flawed act of social endeavor
revealed the courage and desperation they felt as they searched for alternatives
to the chaotic and competitive individualism of the age of robber barons
and for a viable model for a just and humane society at a time of profound
uncertainty about public life in the United States.
Table of Contents
The utopian vision in the Gilded Age -- Julius A. Wayland and his utopian vision -- A community of "sensible, intelligent, earnest, and industrious people" -- A freer, fuller, richer life for women -- Living socialism in Tennessee -- The death and rebirth of Ruskin -- "A union of weaknesses" : Ruskin and the currents within American radicalism -- Epilogue : the meanings of Ruskin.