Utopias on Puget Sound, 1885-1915

Postmaster General James A Farley’s famous toast “to the forty-seven states and the soviet of Washington” introduces and sets the tone for this study of Washington State radicalism. The state’s colorful reputation for radical movements was established in the 1920s and 1930s by free speech fights, strikes, strong labor organizations, and woman suffrage reforms. Charles LeWarne finds the roots of this radicalism in the communitarian experiments of the late nineteenth century.

Through analyses ...