The Utopian Alternative: Fourierism in Nineteenth-Century America (Cornell Paperbacks)

The utopian socialism of Charles Fourier spread throughout Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, but it was in the United States that it generated the most intense excitement. In this rich and engaging narrative, Carl J. Guarneri traces the American Fourierist movement from its roots in the religious, social, and economic upheavals of the 1830s, through its bold communal experiments of the 1840s, to its lingering twilight after the Civil War. Contents Illustrations Preface Introduction I. Origins of American Fourierism 1. Fourierism Crosses the Atlantic 2. Apostles of Association 3. Roots of Popular Participation II. The Doctrine of Association 4. Association and American Society 5. The Utopian Alternative III. Building the New Industrial World 6. The Communitarian Boom and Bust 7. Life in the Phalanxes 8. Organizing a National Movement 9. The Problem of Slavery 10. The Movement Retreats 11. Campaigns with Labor 12. The Last Communities IV. The Decline and Evolution of Utopia 13. The Fading of the Utopian Dream 14. New Directions of the 1850s 15. Fourierism and the Coming of the Civil War 16. The Fourierist Legacy Appendix: Tables, Figures, Maps Abbreviations and Short Forms Used in Notes Notes A Bibliography of American Fourierism Index "The utopian socialism of Charles Fourier spread throughout Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, but it was in the United States that it generated the most intense excitement. Carl J. Guarneri traces the American Fourierist movement from its roots in the religious, social, and economic upheavals of the 1830s, through its bold communal experiments of the 1840s, to its lingering twilight after the Civil War. Guarneri demonstrates that Fourierist communitarianism was not a colorful sideshow to the main events of American history, but a serious and influential attempt to restructure the emergent society of individualism along cooperative line's."--Jacket