From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

earth. Originally published in London in 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s culturally pervasive
work has been published countless times in numerous countries around the world, consequently
becoming a catalyst for international socialist and revolutionary movements.
43. Charles Nordhoff (1887–1947). The Communistic Societies of the United
States. London: J. Murray, 1875.
One of the persistent themes
in American history has been
the urge to abandon the city
and return to the land in order
to create the perfect society.
With the open frontier of the
American plains, the nineteenth
century saw a huge communal
living movement in which
different Christian religious
groups attempted to establish
functional utopian communities. A chain of prosperous agricultural colonies from New England
to California began to emerge which were described by Charles Nordhoff during his travels across
the country, documenting his experiences with the people and cultures within these communities.
Nordhoff visited all of the major settlements, including the Shakers, the Amana Colony, the Society
of Separatists, the Perfectionists, the icarians, and other long-forgotten communities. He includes
extensive information on their religious
beliefs, poetry, architecture, internal
politics, living arrangements, and sexual
practices. in many senses this book was
an ethnographic work documenting
the unique communities that tried to
improve the lives of their people. While
many of these communities no longer
exist, they left a lasting legacy: that it is
always possible to dream of new societies
and make them reality by digging up the
soil and planting the first seeds of their
utopian visions.
43. The Communistic Societies of the United States
From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our Past, Present, and Future 59