Book Review, Creating a Perfect World,Religious and Secular Utopias in nineteenth-century Ohio

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Book Review Creating a Perfect World

The introduction to this book focuses on how individuals have responded to economic, social, and political spheres changing. During the Great Depression some Americans participated in New Deal communities focusing on cooperative forms of living. In the 1960's due to the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and political division, some people created less conventional communes that they viewed superior. America's past reveals times when people attempted to create a perfect world. Due to the westward expansion of the early 19th century Americans dealt with political, economic, and social transitions. Also, the separation of home and work forced people to search for control in their lives. The Second Great Awakening encouraged Americans to take a role in changing society and abolishing societal evils. Some Americans chose to try self-contained communities, hoping to create a perfect world to bring peace to advance the Second Coming of Christ, since some utopians believed spiritual changes would lead to social and economic transitions.

Utopian communities tried to limit and control the interaction with the outside world. So a small piece of the community interacted with the outside world while the majority never did. In establishing new economic and social order, utopians worked to control the process for benefit, the successful communities survived so long due to their ability to adapt to the economic realities of the period by development or adoption of new means and methods of production. Utopian groups were usually small, less then twelve, the few larger groups found it difficult to maintain for so many people.

Between 1787 and 1919 about 170 utopian communities existed in the United States. Utopian societies offered alternatives to capitalism, which utopians criticized greatly. Ohio and the Western Reserve played pivotal roles in religious, reform, and utopian societies in the...