UTOPIAN VISIONS AND THEIR CRITICS: PRESS REACTIONS TO AMERICAN UTOPIAS IN THE ANTE-BELLUM ERA

Ante-bellum American utopias have been usually portrayed as isolated and exotic phenomena that had no impact upon society at large. This study proposes a look at communities from a different angle: their relation to the mainstream, especially to ante-bellum editors and correspondents. The study consists of 133 newspapers and magazines which were published during the early to late 1820\u27s and the early to late 1840\u27s. This sample represents a wide range of newspapers: small town and big city, sectarian and nonsectarian, partisan and independent, national and local, well known and obscure. It covers twenty-three states from across the country. Four major communitarian groups were selected for the purpose of assessing their significance to American society: the Owenites, the Shakers, the Fourierites and the Mormons. Additionally, other smaller groups such as the Harmonists and Frances Wright\u27s community are included in this work. The study of the press reactions to these communities reveals how the existence of utopias helped middle-class writers to sort out their own confusion about American society and to elaborate their own vision of the American dream. On the other hand, the study reveals the very stringent limits of America\u27s ideologies regarding opportunity, openness, innovation and reform. The different communities were litmus tests for the depth and sincerity of American attachments to ideals such as individualism, democracy and capitalism. Instead of tainting the communards as anti-individualist or anti-capitalist, the journalists made an attempt to assimilate the communitarians into their vision of a moral, orderly, religious and affluent society. Thus, the commentators evaded confronting the communalism of the groups and their radical religious callings. For communities to be accepted by the media they had to be Bible-worshipping, apolitical, moral, family-oriented and, moreover, small, prosperous, well behaved, industrious and peaceful. If they deviated from these standards, the purpose of their existence was defeated and the journalists rejected them as enemies of the social order. At no point did the press suggest that middle-class Americans consider joining the utopian alternative. However, the writers advocated it as a haven for the poor and ill-adjusted