Women, Family, and Utopia: Communal Experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons

by Lawrence Foster

An examination of women's roles, family relationships, and sexuality in three unorthodox 19th-century communal experiments, with analysis of the implications such systems may have for present-day Americans concerned with the sense of crisis in family life and sex roles.

Genres: History, Religion, Feminism, American History, Grad School

376 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1991

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked his other book (Religion and Sexuality) better. That was more cohesive and had a thesis across the whole book; this felt like disjointed essays (and he says as much in the intro). Still gave some good things to think about but if you're only going to read one book by Lawrence Foster comparing the Shakers, Oneida, and Mormons, don't choose this one.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good collection of essays about various subjects relating to the three most notorious new religions of 19th century America, all of them dissenting from the coalescing Victorian consensus about sex and marriage.

Being an older book, Foster is responding to an older generation of scholarship, so some of the things he presents as the consensus have long since been rejected, perhaps in part because of his work. But there's still a lot of good stuff here, especially about the Shakers and Oneida Community, about which I'm less familiar than Mormonism.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting topic and very well-researched… but… it is a collection of essays and not a singular, cohesive book. My issue with this is that the same points are often belabored again and again in back-to-back essays. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading this, as it is truly fascinating, but I would recommend reading just a few essays on each of the three religions it focuses on (Shakers, Oneida Community, and Mormons) and you’ll get the main takeaways.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very academic language but some interesting information

[Charity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book I put down because I have no patience for nonfiction right now, even though I really was enjoying the insights into the three communities. I should probably have skipped around a little more than I did rather than trying to power through the book from start to finish. I will definitely check this one out from the library again when I have a longer attention span (or more free time).

[Thorn MotherIssues · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but not as much as I'd hoped it would be.