Communal Utopias and the American Experience Religious Communities, 1732-2000

American communalism is not a disjointed, erratic, almost ephemeral part of our past, but an on-going, essential part of American history. This important study begins with an examination of America's first religious utopia at Ephrata, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1732 and traces successive utopian experiments in the United States through the following centuries. The author demonstrates that the utopian communal story is an integral facet of the Puritan concept of America as a "city upon a hill" and a "beacon light" for the world where the perfect society could be built and where it could flourish.