Heartland Utopias

Sutton offers a regional approach to the study of utopian movements, focusing specifically on the “heartland,” which he defines to include the Old Northwest Territory, the Dakotas, and Missouri. In the number of utopian settlements, the heartland region is surpassed only by New England. Heartland Utopias provides a scholarly 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…