Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands: Compiled by Clara Endicott Sears with Transcendental Wild Oats

This chronicle of Fruitlands, an agrarian community established in Harvard, Massachusetts, details the philosophy, creation and failure of the settlement.

Founded by Bronson Alcott in 1843, Fruitlands was intended to be a utopian commune sustained by its own agriculture. The philosophical concepts of Transcendentalism, and its assertions regarding human morality and the potential of self-reliance, formed a cerebral bedrock. Yet the practical considerations of living were less accounted for: ...