15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
First comprehensive overview of Brook Farm in decades, August 12, 2004
This review is from: Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia (Hardcover)
In his biography of his parents, Nathaniel Hawthorne's son Julian wrote: "The subject of [Brook Farm] ... seems to be intrinsically so barren of interest and edification ... that the present writer has pleasure in passing over it without further remark." Well, Julian was not an unbiased observer, his father having lost a suit against the community. The subject of Brook Farm seems to me intrinsically flush with interest and edification, and it is reason for excitement that current scholarship has been gathered into a new quite comprehensive and very readable overview of the history of that famous community.
That being said, there are a number of quibbles. The presence of footnotes these days must apparently be viewed by publishers as indicating that a work will be seen as hopelessly academic, so the choice is often made for endnotes as it is here, which is endlessly irritating. The absence of a map of the area and a plan of the Farm and a more substantial collection of illustrations is very unfortunate. (Granted there are few contemporary images of the Farm or its residents, but there are later photographs of the farm and the Brook Farmers.) Certainly author Delano had to draw the line in relating details so as to keep the book to a desirable length, but perhaps in the interest of brevity there does feel like a dearth of revealing anecdotes which would have lent additional vitality to the story. The title of the book is misleading. There is no "dark side" to Brook Farm. The book is simply frank in its description of the various aspects of Brook Farm history. The title and the cover photograph give the impression that the story is going to deal with something more or less sordid. Those looking for that kind of "thrill" will be disappointed. A more thorough discussion of the futures of the major Brook Farm participants would have been valuable.
Delano's conclusion that the community's failure is in large part attributable to its turn to Fourierism is, I believe, inaccurate. Certainly its original incarnation as an agricultural collective on poor land in the midst of industrializing society was fated for serious financial difficulties. Life at Brook Farm though was a heady experience. Women were treated as equals as were members coming from different social classes. Its school followed the most progressive child-oriented theories. There was free time for relaxing, writing, musicmaking, dancing, and just having fun in a milieu leagues ahead of its time in terms of liberation of the human spirit. A young Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote: "... such a delectable a way of life has never been seen on earth ...." The turn to Fourierism and small-scale industry was a necessary attempt on the part of Brook Farm's leaders to become financially viable and to seriously come to grips with the community's commitment to being part of a larger social movement for a solution to the awful oppression and degredation of labor in emerging industrial capitalism. "Associationism" (Fourierism), the movement for socialist communities, was the only solution in sight at the time, aside from nascent labor unionism.
Unlike Delano, I found a visit to the site very depressing. A modern cemetery with asphalt roadways and substantial headstones covers the center of the site. Another similar cemetery covers another portion. Brook Farm's cellar holes are the only concrete reminders of what once was. The "Cottage" (cover photograph) survived into the 1980s when it was destroyed by an arson-related fire. Historical markers are, as yet, entirely absent except for brief explanatory panels at the entrance. Sophia Ripley's heady description of the bucolic view from the "Hive" must now be amended to include a residential trailer and a small cemetery office building. Except for the cemeteries, the site is almost entirely overgrown with scrub and forest.
Historians, preservationists and history "amateurs" will regret that so much of that beautiful and eventful site has been irretrievably altered and its buildings lost (though much of the rest has been preserved as parkland). But they should welcome this seminal history, the first book to attempt a comprehensive description of that unique community in many years. All told, Delano's Brook Farm is a "must read" for anyone interested in this remarkable historical episode.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scholarly Page-Turner, August 20, 2004
This review is from: Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia (Hardcover)
The American idealism of the 1840s led to several important experiments in living. Perhaps the most famous was Thoreau's two years at Walden Pond. However, the members of a large number of utopian communities were also striving for better lives during the same period, and Brook Farm was probably the most noted of such communities. Its members' stated goals included self-development and egalitarianism, in efforts to offset the imbalances of their early industrial and conservative society.
I found Professor Delano's book remarkably readable as well as informative. The fascinating story of the Brook Farm experiment is filled with curious characters and dramatic incidents. One can easily imagine it as a novel or screenplay.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delano, I Want More about Brook Farm Women, December 19, 2005
This review is from: Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia (Hardcover)
Let me begin by saying that this book is an excellent read. It is very accessible, if a little long (but don't worry, a large chunk is footnotes, which can be skimmed or skipped), and the author's enthusiasm for this fascinating topic clearly comes through in the text.
That said, I wish there had been more on the women who were a part of Brook Farm. While of course they were addressed (they couldn't be overlooked), often it was in separate sections and not integrated into discussions of the daily life or intellectual work of Brook Farm. Sophia Ripley was referred to as Sophia, while her husband George was referred to as Ripley. Little things like this I found irritating. Brook Farm was an incredibly progressive place for America at that time (the 1840s), and women were a huge part of that. One example of this is that under Fourierism, hours worked were recorded. 9 of the 10 top workers (in terms of hours) were women. Not a big enough deal is made of this, nor is there enough discussion of the fact that the majority of women's hours were devoted to domestic concerns.
This is an excellent book, but if you're looking for a thoughtful and complete history of gender at Brook Farm, you're going to have to write it yourself.
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