Communalism: From Its Origins to The Twentieth Century

Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. In this 1974 book, he traces the origins of communalism back much farther than most such surveys do, including the Pythagoreans, the Essenes, and even the monastic movements of the Medieval period (he notes, for example, that "Both Franciscans and Dominicans were lay-oriented"), as well as the Waldenses and other pre-Protestant Christian groups. But of course he also covers the more typical "utopian" groups such as Bohemia Manor, Woman of the Wilderness, Bishop's Hill, New Harmony, Brook Farm, the Hutterites, and many others. Here are some examples of Rexroth's observations: "(T)he writings of Gerrard Winstanley ... came to constitute the first systematic exposition of libertarian communism in English." After Robert Owen left New Harmony for the last time, "when he reached New York he took ship for England and never came back. The first secular communist community was dead and Owen had lost about a quarter of a million dollars." "Brook Farm was on the border between a religious and a secular colony, and although its sophisticated members were far from being superstitious or 'primitive' or dogmatic in their beliefs, the governing philosophy was certainly millenarian." "The Hutterites form by far the oldest communist society in the world..." "Secular communes have almost always failed in very short order. It is astonishing that Robert Owen's New Harmony should bulk so large in the history of communalism. It lasted so short a while and managed to do everything wrong. A simple belief that all men should live together as brothers is not sufficiently well defined to inspire a strong commitment."