Catherine M. Rokicky is assistant professor of history at Cuyahoga Community College. She is the author of James Monroe: Oberlin’s Christian Statesman and Reformer, 1821–1898.
Listed in: Ohio · Religion | Christianity · Religion | Religion, Politics & State · American History, Midwest · Ohio and Regional · 19th century
Creating a Perfect World
Religious and Secular Utopias in Nineteenth-Century Ohio
By Catherine M. Rokicky
Powerful currents of religious revival and political and social reform swept nineteenth-century America. Many people expressed their radical religious and social ideals by creating or joining self-contained utopian communities. These utopianists challenged the existing social and economic order with alternative notions about religion, marriage, family, sexuality, property ownership, and wage labor.Between 1787 and 1919, approximately 270 utopian communities existed in the United States.
