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Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table
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Published:
Picador 2016
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Description

A fascinating and unusual chapter in American history about a religious community that held radical notions of equality, sex, and religion—-only to transform itself, at the beginning of the twentieth century, into a successful silverware company and a model of buttoned-down corporate propriety.
In the early nineteenth century, many Americans were looking for an alternative to the Puritanism that had been the foundation of the new country. Amid the fervor of the religious revival known as 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 established a revolutionary community in rural New York centered around achieving a life free of sin through God's grace, while also espousing equality of the sexes and "complex marriage," a system of free love where sexual relations with multiple partners was encouraged. Noyes's belief in the perfectibility of human nature eventually inspired him to institute a program of eugenics, known as stirpiculture, that resulted in a new generation of Oneidans who, when the Community disbanded in 1880, sought to exorcise the ghost of their fathers' disreputable sexual theories. Converted into a joint-stock company, 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, Ellen Wayland-Smith's 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.

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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
05/03/2016
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781250043108
ASIN:
B0140PFNVQ
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Ellen Wayland-Smith. (2016). Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table. Picador.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Ellen Wayland-Smith. 2016. Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table. Picador.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Ellen Wayland-Smith, Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table. Picador, 2016.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Ellen Wayland-Smith. Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table. Picador, 2016.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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      • bioText: Ellen Wayland-Smith teaches in the Writing Program at the University of Southern California, and received her PhD. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. A descendent of John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of the Oneida community, she lives in Los Angeles with her family.
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Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table
fullDescription

A fascinating and unusual chapter in American history about a religious community that held radical notions of equality, sex, and religion—-only to transform itself, at the beginning of the twentieth century, into a successful silverware company and a model of buttoned-down corporate propriety.
In the early nineteenth century, many Americans were looking for an alternative to the Puritanism that had been the foundation of the new country. Amid the fervor of the religious revival known as 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 established a revolutionary community in rural New York centered around achieving a life free of sin through God's grace, while also espousing equality of the sexes and "complex marriage," a system of free love where sexual relations with multiple partners was encouraged. Noyes's belief in the perfectibility of human nature eventually inspired him to institute a program of eugenics, known as stirpiculture, that resulted in a new generation of Oneidans who, when the Community disbanded in 1880, sought to exorcise the ghost of their fathers' disreputable sexual theories. Converted into a joint-stock company, 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, Ellen Wayland-Smith's 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.

reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: The New Yorker
      • content:

        "A lively and often entertaining account.... In Wayland-Smith's extended chronicle, we see utopia as it sails through the world, assaulted on all sides by the forces of assimilation and greed."

      • premium: False
      • source: The New York Times Book Review
      • content: "Wayland-Smith is a gifted writer. Her lively account of how Oneida eventually succumbed to 'the gods of Science and Doubt' is a welcome change from most 'as told by' family histories."
      • premium: False
      • source: The Guardian
      • content: "Remarkable... a detailed, riveting account."
      • premium: False
      • source: The Boston Globe
      • content: "Lively...[Wayland-Smith's] nuanced and empathetic book vividly captures the spirit of a brief historical moment."
      • premium: False
      • source: The New Republic
      • content: "[A] fascinating, beautifully-told history."
      • premium: False
      • source: WBUR's Here and Now
      • content: "An incredible story."
      • premium: False
      • source: The Nation
      • content: "An intimate, quirky family portrait."
      • premium: False
      • source: Gawker
      • content: "A gimlet-eyed book about Wayland-Smith's family history."
      • premium: False
      • source: Kirkus Reviews

      • content: "The spotlight Wayland-Smith shines on this remarkable community's beginnings and ending offers a riveting glimpse into the quintessentially American early-19th-century struggle with the rights of the individual and separation of church and state. A smartly contextualized tale of 'the tension between radical social critique and unapologetic accommodation....between communal harmony and individual striving.'"
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from March 7, 2016
        In this impressively thorough and engaging work, Wayland-Smith tells the story of the Oneida Community, a 19th-century utopian Christian commune that later became known for silverware manufacturing. The author, a descendent of community founder John Humphry Noyes, combines stellar research with exceptional critical analysis that considers the community in light of the work of Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and George Bernard Shaw. Organized in upstate New York in 1848, Oneida was marked by a practical approach to finances and countercultural religious beliefs, including free love or “complex marriage.” A schism split the religious community and it dissolved as Noyes grew old, but his descendants continued to run Oneida’s business operations—primarily silk, animal trap, and iron spoon factories. Their spoon factory soon shone brightest, becoming one of the top silverware companies in the country until its 2006 bankruptcy. Wayland-Smith demonstrates that Oneida was very much a product of its time, placing the community in the context of the Second Great Awakening and the expansion of American capitalism while highlighting Noyes’s incorporation of communism, utopianism, eugenics, and spiritualism (among other aspects of industrial modernism) into his belief system. This book is a fascinating look into the strange history of Oneida silverware and how its origins reflect an exhilarating period of American history. Agent: Rob McQuilkin, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        April 15, 2016
        A study of the unlikely origins of one of America's most recognizable brands.For many, little bears the white, middle-class stamp of approval of monogamy more than the timeless wedding gift of silver. But Wayland-Smith (Writing/Univ. of Southern California), great-granddaughter of the former vice president and treasurer of Oneida Limited, unearths the eyebrow-raising history of the rural New York free love-espousing community that spawned one of this country's top silverware makers. Founded in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes, the Oneida Community brought together a tightknit group of Christian religious dissenters who, for 30 years, pooled their assets and lived as one in a "commune-cum-capitalist powerhouse." Wayland-Smith carefully details the rich biography of Noyes, the fascinating sex-obsessed theologian who had his minister's license from Yale Divinity revoked after he began subscribing to Perfectionism, the belief that a sinner could "not only reform himself by making the right moral choices but also be made 'perfect'--free from sin--simply by accepting God's grace." Finding the traditional definition of Christian marriage too confining, Noyes proceeded to fashion his doctrine to practice eugenics and allow for--indeed to celebrate--completely open relationships, which had the somewhat unintended effect of dissolving (for a time) the strictures of traditional 19th-century gender roles for women. Oneida women were able to undertake the same jobs as their male counterparts and encouraged to shun the restrictive, corseted stays of Victorian dress for more practical attire. The narrative is occasionally dry, but the author offers as in-depth an account as possible of Oneida origins, given that, in 1947, unknown persons burned the community's historical records in an attempt to purge the by-then well-respected industrial giant of its racy past. The spotlight she shines on this remarkable community's beginnings and ending offers a riveting glimpse into the quintessentially American early-19th-century struggle with the rights of the individual and separation of church and state. A smartly contextualized tale of "the tension between radical social critique and unapologetic accommodation...between communal harmony and individual striving."

        COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        Starred review from May 1, 2016

        In the early 19th century, an odd, socially awkward, and unlikely leader named John Humphrey Noyes (1811-86), similar to other self-proclaimed ministers of the Second Great Awakening, claimed to have exclusive knowledge about Jesus's millennial kingdom. Noyes believed in the perfectibility of human nature and built an intricate revolutionary community of free love and equality. The Oneidans grew to fairly modest but self-sustaining numbers and eventually built businesses to support their way of life. One of these enterprises included flatware. After the Oneidans disbanded in 1880, they converted to a joint-stock company and Oneida Community Limited (now known as Oneida Limited) would become one of the most well-respected brands of silverware for middle-class American families. Author Wayland-Smith is a descendant of Noyes and teaches writing at the University of Southern California. VERDICT This compelling narrative seamlessly threads the unlikely alliance between a "free love utopia" and a household brand name. Fans of Joseph Ellis and David McCullough will appreciate this engrossing entry.--Erin Entrada Kelly, Philadelphia

        Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        Starred review from April 15, 2016
        Notorious in the nineteenth century for its practice of free love and open marriage, the Oneida commune of upstate New York is better known in the present for its business operations, the famous silverware company. Long gone is the sharing of all work, wealth, and governance. Long gone also is the committee that scheduled couplings of its men and women. By the start of the twentieth century, the utopian agricultural commune following the radical religious ideals of John Humphrey Noyes, a proponent of communism and eugenics who coined the term free love, had become a mainstream manufacturing corporation run by its descendants, an inbred tangle of families trying to forget their past. Despite a secretly executed bonfire of most of Oneida's early documents in the 1940s, the story survives. Drawing from letters, diaries, newsletters, and family stories, the author, an original-family descendant, adds inside information to this retelling of a radical movement's transformation in the shifting current of American ideals. The narrative is engaging and detailed. This is a must-read for those interested in American social history, and should have broad appeal to readers who enjoy microhistories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

popularity
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shortDescription

A fascinating and unusual chapter in American history about a religious community that held radical notions of equality, sex, and religion—-only to transform itself, at the beginning of the twentieth century, into a successful silverware company and a model of buttoned-down corporate propriety.
In the early nineteenth century, many Americans were looking for an alternative to the Puritanism that had been the foundation of the new country. Amid the fervor of the religious revival known as 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 established a revolutionary community in rural New York centered around achieving a life free of sin through God's grace, while also espousing equality of the sexes and "complex marriage," a system of free love where sexual relations with multiple partners was...

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      • code: REL015000
      • description: Religion / Christianity / History