Excerpt from The New Harmony Communities By strange coincidence, New Harmony became the scene of the most notable experiments yet attempted by the social architects of two of these three classes. Among religious communists, the Rappites, founders of Harmony, have been most successful, and their residence in Indiana marked the high tide of their growth in wealth and num bers. There has not been another trial of philosophical communistic association so auspiciously undertaken, or so thoroughly carried to a conclusion, as that which Robert Owen inaugurated at New Harmony more than three quarters of a century ago. Brook Farm has occupied a larger place in literature, but as a serious eifort at solving the social problems of its time, it did not approach New Harmony in importance. To New Harmony, Brook Farm was as a playground to a workshop. Brook Farm afforded temporary amusement to a congenial coterie of literary celebrities who cherished romantic ideals in common, but it bequeathed little to the world except their individual contributions to the literature of that period. The New Harmony experiment was conducted in a less romantic atmosphere, but it was more earnest, thorough and satis fying, and to the modern student of sociology it is more significant as a social venture. As Owenism was the fore runner of Fourierism, so New Harmony was the forerunner of Brook Farm. As Brook Farm was the center of a group of Fourieristic phalansteries, or colonies, so New Harmony was the inspiration of a large number of Oweni-te experiments, scattered over so wide a range of territory that they assumed the proportions of a national move ment. Robert Owen declared, Emerson says, - and Owen is not the only witness to the fairness of his contention, that Fourier learned all he knew of communism from a study of Owenism. If this be true, Brook Farm was only a far-off re ection of the great experiment at New Har mony. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."