Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table

A terrific read! J.L. Davis A fascinating, insider's look at the Oneida community. Wayland-Smith explores the darker corners of the utopian dream, using a rich trove of archival material. Her crisp, elegant prose keeps the reader hooked from beginning to end. A terrific read!. A great and wild read This is a fascinating book--a wild ride from free love utopia in New York to the silver kings of Oneida. Its great for American history buffs and an amazing family tale told by one of the descendants with the "inside" goods. I learned a lot about religion and advertising too. Waiting for the mini series!!!. Sara Chaplin said A FASCINATING READ. A must read for anyone interested in the evolution of religious movements in the United States.Well-written and a riveting read.

Noyes’s belief in the perfectibility of human nature eventually inspired him to institute a program of eugenics, known as stirpiculture, that resulted in a new generation of Oneidans who, when the Community disbanded in 1880, sought to exorcise the ghost of their fathers’ disreputable sexual theories. A fascinating and unusual chapter in American history about a religious community that held radical notions of equality, sex, and religiononly to transform itself, at the beginning of the twentieth century, into a successful silverware company and a model of buttoned-down corporate p

. Ellen Wayland-Smith teaches in the Writing Program at the University of Southern California, and received her PhD. A descendent of John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of the Oneida community, she lives in Los Angeles with her family. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. Oneida is her first book

"A lively and often entertaining account. In Wayland-Smith’s extended chronicle, we see utopia as it sails through the world, assaulted on all sides by the forces of assimilation and greed."The New Yorker"Wayland-Smith is a gifted writer. Her lively account of how Oneida eventually succumbed to 'the gods of Science and Doubt' is a welcome change from most 'as told by' family histories."The New York Times Book Review“Remarkable… a detailed, riveting account.”The Guardian"LivelyWayland-Smith's nuanced and empathetic book vividly captures the spirit of a brief historical moment."Boston Globe"A fascinating, beautifully-told history."The New Republic“An incredible story.”WBUR’s ‘Here and Now’“An intimate, qui