A bucolic Indiana community striving to maintain Utopian ideals

Winner, 2012 Communal Studies Association Publication Award

New Harmony Then and Now is a photographic and historic celebration of two of America's great Utopian communities located in New Harmony, Indiana. The Harmonists, started by George Rapp, labored to provide physical, intellectual, and spiritual wealth for its members. Ten years later, the Owenites, founded by Robert Owen and his partner William Maclure, settled there, intent on improving humanity through innovations in social theory, educational systems, and discoveries in natural science. Though Owen's communal experiment would not endure, a new social frontier prospered. Today, New Harmony remains a haven of promise, a village that honors its progressive heart. Intellectuals as well as artisans are drawn to this place of science and spirit.

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This is a beautiful book with beautiful pictures, and I recommend you check it out.

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New Harmony: Then & Now provides a highly readable account of the communitarian movements in New Harmony, Indiana, alongside beautiful images that provide a window into the vibrant community that still exists along the banks of the Wabash River. While this book was clearly produced for a general audience, academic historians might glean much about nineteenth-century American society from its pages.

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Browsing the sumptuous photos in New Harmony Then & Now is the next best thing to a visit.

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Stunning from start to finish . . . Pitzer and Jones, through his dynamic full-color photographs, show how Rapp and Owen's larger-than-life personalities still impress 200 years later.