Peter N. Herndon
Andrews, Edward D.,
The Gift to be Simple.
New York: J.J. Augustin, Publishers, 1940.
Useful history of Shaker music which accompanied the Great Revival of the 1830’s. Includes diagrams of Shaker dancesteps.
The People Called Shakers
,
A Search for the Perfect Society
. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1963.
Excellent notes with full bibliography for each chapter; forty pages of Shaker Millenial Laws, duties and ordinances.
Bestor, Arthur E.,
Backwoods Utopias
,
The Sectarian and Owenite Phases of Communitarian Socialism in America
, 1663-1829. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1950.
Valuable descriptions with an extensive bibliographical essay.
Cooke, Harold E.,
Shaker Music
:
A Manifestation of American Folk Culture
. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1973.
Chapter one gives an excellent summary of the Shaker’s history.
Hayden, Delores,
Seven American Utopias
.
The Architectu
re
of Communitarian
Socialism
,
1790-1975
. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press, 1976.
Chapters on Owenites, Fourierists, Oneida and New Harmonists are particularly enlightening. Valuable maps, diagrams, photographs and illustrations.
Hinds, William A.,
American Communities
(1878). New York: Corinth Books, 1961.
The best primary source available on American utopian communities of the nineteenth century. Appendices include covenant agreements for four communitarian societies.
Horgan, Edward R.,
The Shaker Holy Land
. Harvard, Massachusetts: The Harvard Common Press, 1982.
Well-documented; includes a guide to Shaker Museums with maps and rare photographs.
Knoedler, Christiana F.,
The Harmony Society
:
A 19th Century American Utopia
. New York: Vantage Press.
A study in idealism and the failure of one-man leadership in the wake of greed and self-fulfillment.
More, Thomas,
Utopia
, Edward Surtz, ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964.
Useful woodcut map from the 1518 edition.
Morse, Flo,
The Shakers and the World’s People.
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1980.
Well-illustrated with an especially valuable bibliography. Filled with insightful first-person observations on Shaker life from within and without the movement.
Nordhoff, Charles,
The Communistic Societies of the United States
(1875). New York: Schoken Books, 1965.
Useful for a general overview from a contemporary observer.
Noyes, John Humphrey,
History of American Socialisms
(1870). New York: Hillary House, 1961.
Helpful in gaining overall perspective of utopian community experiments.
Pollard, Sidney and John Salt, eds.,
Robert Owen
,
Prophet of the Poor
. London: The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1971.
Collection of essays which attempt to evaluate the attempts of one man to unite a diverse group of individuals into a coherent purposeful community.
Reiner, Thomas A.,
The Place of the Ideal Community in Urban Planning
. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1963. Interesting collection of drawings and plans for various utopian schemes both within rural and urban settings.
Whitworth, John McKelvie,
God’s Blueprints
:
A Sociological Study of Three Utopian Sects
:
The Oneidans
,
the Shakers and the Bruderhof
. London: The Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1974.
Appealing attempt to describe the impact of religious faith and its effects on three communal organizations from past to present.