American Utopias: The History of Famous Attempts to Establish Utopian Societies in the United States
Written by Charles River Editors
Narrated by Jim Johnston
()
About this audiobook
In the 19th century, the young United States was exposed to the profound changes that historians call the Market Revolution. Cities experienced drastic changes as manufacturing and trade created jobs that hungry job seekers from the countryside migrated towards, but the hype triumphed over the realities, and more unemployed recent migrants lived in the cities than the number of gainfully employed workers. Urban stresses dominated American cities and also attracted the attention of reformers.
The rural areas also experienced profound changes from the intrusion of commercial trade, which penetrated the agricultural regions and affected the prices of supplies and transport. This also affected the profits from foodstuff and produce, all of which average rural Americans could not control. Left to the mercy of the markets, while the rapid era of canal building and the first railroads brought the countryside further into the grips of the cities, religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening took over, and so too did new experiments arise to provide alternative models of the capitalistic system that left people at the mercy of boom and bust cycles.
For most utopian societies, the common element was a charismatic figure who had a vision of how to lead the people out of an untenable present into a better future by committing themselves to a new set of rules and practices. They envisioned better futures at a physical location intended to be the root of a movement that would spread and redeem the community.
More audiobooks from Charles River Editors
Gnosticism: The History and Legacy of the Mysterious Ancient Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The East India Company: The History of the British Empire's Most Famous Mercantile Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ur: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Sumerian Capital Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineveh: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Assyrian Capital Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legends of the West: Deadwood, South Dakota Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Arnold Rothstein and Meyer Lansky: The Lives and Legacies of the Gangsters Who Reformed Organized Crime in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMysteries of the South: Ghosts, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena in Dixie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mossad: The History and Legacy of Israel’s National Intelligence Agency Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Life and Legacy of the Father of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden: The History of 19th Century America's Most Famous Murder Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung: The Pioneering Lives and Works of History’s Most Influential Psychologists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle of Hamburger Hill: The History and Legacy of One of the Vietnam War's Most Controversial Battles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Midwest: Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena in America's Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denisovans: The History of the Extinct Archaic Humans Who Spread Across Asia during the Paleolithic Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to American Utopias
Related audiobooks
Winter in America: A Cultural History of Neoliberalism, from the Sixties to the Reagan Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the Black Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaving America's Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gifted Generation: When Government Was Good Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/51956: The World in Revolt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Republics: A Continental History of the United States 1783-1850 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Democracy: The Creation of the Modern American State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStanding at Armageddon: A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kingdom of Rye: A Brief History of Russian Food Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe History and Legacy of America’s Most Unusual Riots in the Early 19th Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of Religion in America: An Introduction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Conservative Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God & Public Lands in the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Political Parties: Why They Formed, How They Function, and Where They're Headed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComing Out, Moving Forward: Wisconsin’s Recent Gay History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Barred by Congress: How a Mormon, a Socialist, and an African American Elected by the People Were Excluded from Office Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coal: A Human History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Godforsaken Idaho: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-made Landscape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Indelible Ink: The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America's Free Press Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
United States History For You
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): An American History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Up From Slavery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for American Utopias
0 ratings0 reviews