Experiments in communism sprang up all over the United States in the latter half of the 19th century, idealistic attempts at utopian living amidst the clanging capitalism of the expanding nation. They were already on their way out when American journalist CHARLES NORDHOFF (1830-1901) took his grand tour of these communities, and his unsentimental, unbiased examination of their origins, religious beliefs, daily life, social habits, and other details-based on his own firsthand observation and first published in 1875-remains the best accounts we have of: [ the Amana Society [ the Harmonists at Economy [ the Separatists of Zoar [ the Shakers [ the Oneida and Wallingford Perfectionists [ the Aurora and Bethel Communes [ the Icarians [ the Bishop Hill Colony [ the Cedar Vale Commune [ the Social Freedom Community Complete with a look at three colonies not communistic in nature-Anaheim, California; Vineland, New Jersey; and Silkville Prairie Home, Kansas-and statistics on commune life as it existed in the day, this is an invaluable resource for students of socialism and communism, of American social experiments, and of the little-explored corners of American history in general.

Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell. In one of modern history’s most miraculous occurrences, communism imploded–and not with a bang, but with a whimper. Now two of the foremost scholars of East European and Soviet affairs, Stephen Kotkin and Jan T. Gross, drawing upon two decades of reflection, revisit this crash. In a crisp, concise, unsentimental narrative, they employ three case studies–East Germany, Romania, and Poland–to illuminate what led Communist regimes to surrender, or to be swept away in political bank runs. This is less a story of dissidents, so-called civil society, than of the bankruptcy of a ruling class–communism’s establishment, or “uncivil society.” The Communists borrowed from the West like drunken sailors to buy mass consumer goods, then were unable to pay back the hard-currency debts and so borrowed even more. In Eastern Europe, communism came to resemble a Ponzi scheme, one whose implosion carries enduring lessons. From East Germany’s pseudotechnocracy to Romania’s megalomaniacal dystopia, from Communist Poland’s cult of Mary to the Kremlin’s surprise restraint, Kotkin and Gross pull back the curtain on the fraud and decadence that cashiered the would-be alternative to the market and democracy, an outcome that opened up to a deeper global integration that has proved destabilizing.

Virtually every "utopia" in existence as of 1875 is described, with material on social customs, guiding philosophy, food, clothing, attitudes toward sex and more. Primary source for communes, social and sexual odd groups. Basic work in field. 39 illustrations.

Having won a two-third majority in Parliament at the 2010 elections, the Hungarian political party Fidesz removed many of the institutional obstacles of exerting power. Just like the party, the state itself was placed under the control of a single individual, who since then has applied the techniques used within his party to enforce submission and obedience onto society as a whole. In a new approach the author characterizes the system as the ?organized over-world?, the ?state employing mafia methods? and the ?adopted political family', applying these categories not as metaphors but elements of a coherent conceptual framework. The actions of the post-communist mafia state model are closely aligned with the interests of power and wealth concentrated in the hands of a small group of insiders. While the traditional mafia channeled wealth and economic players into its spheres of influence by means of direct coercion, the mafia state does the same by means of parliamentary legislation, legal prosecution, tax authority, police forces and secret service. The innovative conceptual framework of the book is important and timely not only for Hungary, but also for other post-communist countries subjected to autocratic rules. ÿ