Books by Robert P. Sutton

Offers an overview of 19th century utopian communities in the heartland from the first Shaker village near Dayton, Ohio, built in 1807, to the 1903 incorporation and ensuing stormy history of The House of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

American communalism is not a disjointed, erratic, almost ephemeral part of our past, but an on-going, essential part of American history. This important study begins with an examination of America's first religious utopia at Ephrata, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1732 and traces successive utopian experiments in the United States through the following centuries. The author demonstrates that the utopian communal story is an integral facet of the Puritan concept of America as a "city upon a hill" and a "beacon light" for the world where the perfect society could be built and where it could flourish.

Communes and utopian communities are groups of men and women who share a central or common belief and choose to live together away from mainstream society.

The issues and controversies surrounding the creation of our federal republic-and the rights of the federal government-have reverberated through many watershed events in the 200+ years of American history.