Like these
utopian communities, Willow Village speaks of its founders' desire to correct imagined social problems by reinventing social life.
Settlement houses were established, educational institutions grew, and
utopian communities were founded.
Organized by fortifications and civic, commercial, domestic, and religious and funerary architecture, they include government buildings like the White House and US Capitol, bridges and canals, museums, educational and other institutions, and buildings from world's fairs, as well as landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and Central Park; department stores, office buildings, factories, and entertainment venues; dwellings, such as plantations and the Mark Twain House; forts built by the US military (Fort Clatsop and Fort Sumter); and churches, cemeteries, and landmarks from
utopian communities founded by religious leaders, including the Mormon Tabernacle and Mount Auburn Cemetery.
What this means is that we have, at roughly the same time, the establishment of
utopian communities in both the United States and Australia and Marx's announcement of a project of 'ruthless criticism' in
From 1800 to 1899, as Chris Jennings's Paradise Now tells us, more than one hundred
utopian communities were founded in the United States.
Actual
utopian communities never work out well, though there have been many experiments, especially in America.
In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, nearly a dozen
utopian communities took root in and around Puget Sound.
Utopian communities were also established back then.
Those interested in the history of
utopian communities, anarchism, or the Pacific Northwest will find a fascinating and enlightening read, but the addition of Wadland's own journey will make this book appealing to a general audience as well.
Although she could be extremely skeptical of the
utopian communities constructed by her contemporaries, urban life made her optimistic and left her fulfilled.
This is no less true of religious--and for our purposes here, Christian --communities than it is of Skinnerian or
Utopian communities. Those of us who have been at this for a while find conversations with those of other communal traditions and beliefs (or disbeliefs) not only helpful but necessary.
Their significance is that they are all examples of such benches used in
utopian communities of the 19th and 20th centuries.