Americas Utopian

A Pulitzer-finalist historian charts a 250-year-old intellectual and political tradition—the conviction that all Americans are NOT created equal. We think of the United States as a nation committed, at least on paper, to ideals of human equality, under God and/or under the law. But as robust...

This program is read by by four-time Audie Award winner, Odyssey Award winner, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award–winning audiobook narrator, Dion Graham. One of Literary Hub's most anticipated books of 2024 "Narrator Dion Graham's smooth baritone carries gravitas and emotion."—AudioFile...

Utopian dictators like Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Mao are criminals – genocidal psychopaths who have killed more human beings in the last hundred years than any other ideologues in history. They don't limit their murder to individuals, but to entire nations. In the United States another form of utopians, the "progressives," have tried to destroy traditional America by strategically dumbing down her people.

The "unputdownable" (Dave Eggers, National Book award finalist) story of the most infamous American con man you've never heard of: James Strang, self-proclaimed divine king of earth, heaven, and an island in Lake Michigan, "perfect for fans of The Devil in the White City" (Kirkus) A New York...

Between 1865 and 1890, in the aftermath of the Civil War, virtually every important American labor reform organization advocated "cooperation" over "competitive" capitalism and several thousand cooperatives opened for business during this era. The men and women who built cooperatives were practical reformers and they established businesses to stabilize their work lives, families, and communities. Yet they were also utopians - envisioning a world free from conflict where workers would receive the full value of their labor.

Unearth the fascinating history of how the Freemasons and Founding Fathers sowed the seeds of a new nation amid the collapse of the British colonies. Step back in time to the birth of a revolutionary new republic and discover how the utopian ideals of a visionary secret society laid the...

The first European settlers saw America as a paradise regained. The continent seemed to offer a God-given opportunity to start again and build the perfect community. Those messianic days are gone. But as Alex Krieger argues in City on a Hill, any attempt at deep understanding of how the country has developed must recognize the persistent and dramatic consequences of utopian dreaming. Even as ideals have changed, idealism itself has for better and worse shaped our world of bricks and mortar, macadam, parks, and farmland.

Charles Nordhoff (1830-1901) was a newspaper correspondent, novelist, and traveler. This work, published in 1875, is an extensive report on socialism and communism in their infancy. Nordhoff visited virtually all of the major utopian communities in America to record their history, beliefs, and daily life, and to study their doctrine and literature.

'Neima’s book, impeccably researched and beautifully written, will be an inspiration for anyone looking to an alternative future today.' - Stella Tillyard, author of Aristocrats and The Great Level 'Deeply interesting and a pleasure to read, The Utopians illuminates the history of “social...

In May 1904 the residents of Halcyon - a small utopian community on California's central coast - invited their neighbors to attend the grand opening of the Halcyon Hotel and Sanatorium. As part of the entertainment, guests were encouraged to have their hands X-rayed. For the founders and members of Halcyon, the X-ray was a demonstration of mysterious spiritual forces made practical to human beings.