Oneida : from free love Utopia to the well-set table

Resource Information

The work Oneida : from free love Utopia to the well-set table represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Mid-Continent Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Oneida : from free love Utopia to the well-set table

Title remainder

from free love Utopia to the well-set table

Statement of responsibility

Ellen Wayland-Smith

Title variation

From free love Utopia to the well-set table

Creator

• Wayland-Smith, Ellen

Subject

• Free love -- New York (State) -- History -- 19th century
• Noyes, John Humphrey, 1811-1886
• Oneida Community -- History
• Oneida, ltd. -- History
• Collective settlements -- New York (State) -- History
• Social reformers -- United States -- Biography
• Tableware -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• Silver flatware -- United States -- History -- 19th century

Genre

• Biography

Language

eng

Summary

Amidst the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening, John Humphrey Noyes, a spirited but socially awkward young man, attracted a group of devoted followers with his fiery sermons about creating Jesus'' millennial kingdom here on earth. Noyes and his followers built a large communal house in rural New York where they engaged in what Noyes called "complex marriage," an elaborate system of free love where sexual relations with multiple partners was encouraged. Noyes was eventually inspired to institute a program of eugenics, known as "stirpiculture," to breed a new generation of Oneidans from the best members of the Community--many fathered by him. When Noyes died in 1886, the Community disavowed Noyes' disreputable sexual theories and embraced their thriving business of flatware. Oneida Community, Limited would go on to become one of the nation's leading manufacturers of silverware, and their brand a coveted mark of middle-class respectability in pre- and post-WWII America. Told by a descendant of one of the Community's original families, Oneida is a captivating story that straddles two centuries to reveal how a radical, free-love sect, turning its back on its own ideals, transformed into a purveyor of the white picket fence American dream

Cataloging source

DLC

Illustrations

• illustrations
• plates

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

adult