History of American Socialisms

Communities built around shared property and cooperative labor supply the evidence for John Humphrey Noyes's account of American socialism. His stated aim is to learn from actual experiments, comparing movements associated with Owen and Fourier with religious communities such as the Shakers. The opening explains how he recovered A. J. Macdonald's large collection of manuscripts, newspaper pieces, and pamphlets, then organized it as a foundation for this history. Chapters range across New Harmony, Brook Farm, and numerous regional associations.

The letters and reports give these ambitious schemes a practical scale. In the middle excerpt, members discuss divided earnings, shortages of workers, seasonal illness, and pressure from creditors. Reports of hopeful prospects sit beside news of an association's collapse, showing how quickly conditions could change. Readers interested in cooperative economics or American social reform can follow both the ideas behind communal life and the everyday arrangements on which it depended.