All Things New: American Communes and Utopian Movements, 1860-1914

Sociology of Religion, Summer, 1993 by George A. Hillery, Jr.

Professor Fogarty has written essentially a chronology of communes from the Civil War to the onset of World War I. Some of the purposes of the book are to set straight the historical record for communes of this time span, to show that the era was not lacking in communal effort as some have claimed, and "to rescue some of the lesser-known groups from obscurity and try to place them and their fellow travelers within a larger framework".

Fogarty comments on the many kinds of communes and the reasons for founding them. Marginal, "often ideologically and socially in opposition to American society", varying in leadership and strategy, composed often of mystical "dreamers, inspired prophets, and radical visionaries", they were fueled by fresh "opportunity, fresh land, and fresh ideas". "Throughout the period there were, of course, communities founded that failed to fit any convenient category, and they stand as monuments to eccentricity, to a singular vision, and to idiosyncratic communal behavior and inspiration". Incidentally, the opening chapter is misnamed: Fogarty does not speak of "The Communal Pattern" but of communal patterns.

The remaining four chapters simply provide accounts of the communes, one after another. In essence, we are given a historical tour. There is also an extremely valuable commentary on sources.

No section heads are provided, other than the chapters, which do little more than break up the narrative. This style is disconcerting when, with little warning, Fogarty suddenly begins discussing a new commune:

It was, for example, through anarchism that J.J. Martin founded a community. After working as a labor arbitrator on behalf of San Francisco seamen, he started, with Burnette Haskell, the Kaweah colony. Admitted to the California bar in 1879, Haskell had, for a time, edited the journal Truth.

Not until several paragraphs later did I realize that the comment, "for example," was not a casual remark but that Fogarty was adding another colony to his chronology. This procedure required me frequently to reverse myself and retrieve the beginning of several accounts. Sections would have helped.

Since Fogarty wants to improve the record for a neglected era, he discusses mainly more obscure communes. In this sense, the book should be a valuable resource. No one will ever get a complete count of the number of communes, but the additional information is welcome.

Those concerned with community, social movements, and American history will be especially interested in this work. For the student of religion, the heavy influence of this subject on communes is not neglected. In addition, the book gives an unusual and honest perspective on the times, especially of the impact of capitalism on the worker.

Though not Fogarty's purpose, this sociologist feels that more could have been done in observing patterns. For example, Fogarty's information supports a basic principle: Most communes don't last, and most people who join communes don't stay. And another: One reason why communes fail is that they tend to "go it alone." Some communal efforts, such as monasteries (the oldest communes, though not generally seen as such), the Shakers, and the Hutterites, organized into more or less loose federations. When one commune failed, whether in leadership, in belief, or in finance, help was available from the others.

One suggestion Fogarty does make may become a valuable addition to utopian theory:

If there is a single idea that holds these disparate utopians together, it is the notion of journeying. . . . They believed that it was possible to redeem oneself by undertaking a journey, that migration in both a physical and a psychological sense could create community.

But generalizations are not Fogarty's purpose. He wants to describe a persisting feature of American life, one that is older than the nation, indeed, one which has been a part of many cultures for thousands of years. The subject raises an important question: Given their marginality, minority status, and impermanence, why do communes continue to emerge? The quality of knowledge depends on the questions raised. Fogarty's study will produce many valuable questions.