During the early 19th century, scores of utopian societies, settlements,

During the early 19th century, scores of utopian societies, settlements,

and communes were formed in the United States as part of the Second Great Awakening and other movements, in part as a response to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. One of the longest-lasting experiments was the Harmony Society.

“I am a prophet and am called to be one.” George Rapp (1757-1847) began preaching in Germany in the 1780s and his followers split from the Lutheran Church in 1785 and left for the United States in 1803. Some 800 people joined the “Harmonie” community in Butler County, Pennsylvania. In 1814, the Society moved west to Indiana, before moving back to Pennsylvania to the town of Economy. The Indiana settlement was then purchased by Robert Owen, who renamed it as New Harmony, and built a Utopian society.

Meanwhile Rapp’s Christian communal experiment continued, outlasting Rapp himself, until the early 20th century, one of the few 19th century utopian societies to have endured for so long—despite the admonition to the celibate life.  Remnants of their way of life can be seen in the Village of Old Economy in Pennsylvania. 

Karl Arndt (1905-1991) was a scholar specializing in utopian studies and the Head of the Department of German at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. With support from the NHPRC, he published a documentary history of the utopian community, six volumes published by the Harmony Society Press and two by the Indiana Historical Society.

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