Oneida Utopia: A Community Searching for Human Happiness and Prosperity

Description

Oneida Utopia is a fresh and holistic treatment of a long-standing social experiment born of revival fervor and communitarian enthusiasm. The Oneida Community of upstate New York was dedicated to living as one family and to the sharing of all property, work, and love. Anthony Wonderley is a sensitive guide to the things and settings of Oneida life from its basis in John H. Noyes’s complicated theology, through experiments in free love and gender equality, to the moment when the commune transformed itself into an industrial enterprise based on the production of silverware. Rather than drawing a sharp boundary between spiritual concerns and worldly matters, Wonderley argues that commune and company together comprise a century-long narrative of economic success, innovative thinking, and abiding concern for the welfare of others. Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Perfectionism 2. Putney 3. Oneida Birthed and Left Behind 4. Creating a Community 5. Gender and Sex 6. Buildings, Landscapes, and Traps 7. Industrialization 8. Breakup 9. A Silverware Company 10. Welfare Capitalism Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index