Utopia?
Not too far from where we live, there was a utopian community in the 1840s and 50s called The Phalanx, based on somebody’s pre-Marxist socialist ideals. To this day there’s a road in Middletown called Phalanx Road that I pass on my way to work every morning. Laura found a page on a web site about Monmouth County history that talks about the eleven year history of The Phalanx. The book the article was taken from was written in 1885. I find it interesting that the author mentions that the locals at the time the commune existed and in 1885 as well thought it was a hotbed of free love, even though it wasn’t, because that myth about the commune exists to this day in this area. It’s also interesting to see that even in such an enlightened community, the women were still expected to do the housework.
Posted at 12:44 PM