Winner of the 2008 Honor Book by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities Utopia. New Jersey. For most peopleeven the most satisfied New Jersey residentsthese words hardly belong in the same sentence. Yet, unbeknown to many, history shows that the state has been a favorite location for utopian experiments for more than a century. Thanks to its location between New York and Philadelphia and its affordable land, it became an ideal proving ground where philosophical and philanthropical organizations and individuals could test their utopian theories. In this intriguing look at this little-known side of New Jersey, Perdita Buchan explores eight of these communities. Adopting a wide definition of the term
utopiabroadening it to include experimental living arrangements with a variety of missionsBuchan explains that what the founders of each of these colonies had in common was the goal of improving life, at least as they saw it.
In every other way, the communities varied greatly, ranging from a cooperative colony in Englewood founded by Upton Sinclair, to an anarchist village in Piscataway centered on an educational experiment, to the fascinating Physical Culture City in Spotswood, where drugs, tobacco, and corsets were banned, but where nudity was widespread.
Despite their grand intentions, all but one of the utopiasa single-tax colony in Berkeley Heightsfailed to survive. But Buchan shows how each of them left a legacy of much more than the buildings or street names that remain todaylegacies that are inspiring, surprising, and often outright quirky.