Visions of Utopia: Nashoba, Rugby, Ruskin, and the "New Communities" in Tennessee's Past

by John Egerton

Visionaries of all ages and places have pursued Utopias, dreaming impossible dreams of starting over in new communities fashioned more closely to their ideals. In Visions of Utopia, John Egerton traces the fascinating history of the experimental communities founded by such groups in Tennessee. He focuses in particular on three extraordinary colonies of the 19th century, each of them widely known in its Nashoba, and interracial settlement near Memphis in 1825; Rugby, an English cooperative community on the Cumberland Plateau in 1880; and Ruskin, a socialist community in Dickson County in 1894.

John Egerton is a native Southerner – A Georgian by birth, a Kentuckian in his childhood and youth, a Floridian during the early 1960’s, and a Tennessean since 1965. He is a grandson of one of the English colonists who started the Rugby settlement in 1880. As a journalist and author, he has written articles on a variety of subjects for more than twenty magazines, and has published two books about the A Mind to Stay Here (1970) and The Americanization of Dixie (1974).

Genres: History, Nonfiction

104 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1977

Reviews

[Shaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Utopian communities have always fascinated me, as has the history of the American South - particularly my former home of Tennessee. The three communal projects discussed in this book are difficult to find cohesive information about, and this book does a good job of shoring up a lot of loose ends.

[Nexusjio · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a neat book to read about very unexpected piece of Tennessee history. basically in the mid to late 1800s there were three attempts at creating communes that were idealistically Utopian.

As you'd expect they all didn't survive and failed miserably. But the parts that interest me were the fact, they all three were either attempts at fighting against the injustices of the time (slavery and capitalism) or were Non-Marxist Socialist in nature. The fact you had socialist communes in Tennessee is wild to think.

I will admit when you read about the three communes and who started them and their motives you start to see the huge cracks at the foundation for why they failed.

Nashoba: the founder wanted to end slavery and end racism, but her logic was in "I"ll buy enslaved black folk and teach them to be self sufficient and after 5 years send them to another country".....just that alone you can see the white savior type of racism.

Rugby & Raskin: Both were essentially commercial projects with the founders having a mixed bag of beliefs that sometimes contradicted each other. As well either not understanding class struggle and with the foundation being based around capitalism (even though the Raskin commune was supposed to be against capitalism) you can see why they ultimately failed.

Regardless this was a neat & fun read at a snapshot of TN history

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visions of Utopia: Nashoba, Rugby, Ruskin, and the “New Communities” in Tennessee’s Past by John Egerton (University of Tennessee Press 1977) (335.9768). The focus on this book by noted Tennessee historian John Egerton is on “experimental communities” in which extraordinary visionaries of various ilk have attempted to create settlements in their own visions of utopia. Three such communities are highlighted here: Nashoba, which was founded in 1825, was an interracial community near Memphis; Rugby, settled on the Cumberland Plateau in 1880, was an English cooperative settlement; and Ruskin, settled in Dickson County in 1884, was established as a socialist cooperative. This volume describes the communities and the ideals which led to their creation as well as the present status of the communal groups or the causes of their collapse. My rating: 7/10, finished 1979.