An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder by Susan Wels
This true crimeodysseyexplores aforgotten, astonishing chapter of American history,leadingthe reader from afree-love communityin upstate New York tothe shocking assassination of President James Garfield.
It was heaven onearthand, some whispered, the devils garden.
Thousands came by trains andcarriages to see this new Eden, carved from hundreds of acres of wildwoodland. They marveled at orchards bursting with fruit, thick herds ofAyrshire cattle and Cotswold sheep, and whizzing mills. They gaped at thepeople who lived in this placeespecially the women, with their queer croppedhair and shamelessly short skirts. The men and women of thisstrange outpostworked and slept togetherwithout sin, they claimed.
From 1848 to 1881, a small utopian colony inupstate New Yorkthe Oneida Communitywas known for its shocking sexualpractices, from open marriage and freelove to the sexual training of young boys by olderwomen.And in 1881, a one-time member of the OneidaCommunityCharles Julius Guiteauassassinated President James Garfield in abrutal crime that shook America to its core.
AnAssassin in Utopiais the first book that weaves together these explosivestories in a tale of utopian experiments, political machinations, and murder.Thisdeeply researched narrativeby bestselling authorSusan Welstells the true, interlocking stories of the OneidaCommunityand its radical founder, John Humphrey Noyes; his idol,the eccentric newspaper publisher Horace Greeley (founder oftheNew Yorkerand theNew York Tribune);and the gloomy, indecisive President James Garfieldwho wasassassinated after his first sixmonths in office.
Juxtaposed to their stories is the odd tale of Garfieldsassassin, the demented Charles Julius Guiteau, who was connected to all of them inextraordinary, surprising ways.
Against a vivid backdrop of ambition, hucksterism,epidemics, and spectacle,the books interwoven stories fuse togetherin the climactic murder of President Garfield in 1881at the same time as theOneida Community collapsed.
Colorful and compelling,An AssassininUtopiais a page-turning odyssey through Americas nineteenth-centurycultural and political landscape.
It was heaven onearthand, some whispered, the devils garden.
Thousands came by trains andcarriages to see this new Eden, carved from hundreds of acres of wildwoodland. They marveled at orchards bursting with fruit, thick herds ofAyrshire cattle and Cotswold sheep, and whizzing mills. They gaped at thepeople who lived in this placeespecially the women, with their queer croppedhair and shamelessly short skirts. The men and women of thisstrange outpostworked and slept togetherwithout sin, they claimed.
From 1848 to 1881, a small utopian colony inupstate New Yorkthe Oneida Communitywas known for its shocking sexualpractices, from open marriage and freelove to the sexual training of young boys by olderwomen.And in 1881, a one-time member of the OneidaCommunityCharles Julius Guiteauassassinated President James Garfield in abrutal crime that shook America to its core.
AnAssassin in Utopiais the first book that weaves together these explosivestories in a tale of utopian experiments, political machinations, and murder.Thisdeeply researched narrativeby bestselling authorSusan Welstells the true, interlocking stories of the OneidaCommunityand its radical founder, John Humphrey Noyes; his idol,the eccentric newspaper publisher Horace Greeley (founder oftheNew Yorkerand theNew York Tribune);and the gloomy, indecisive President James Garfieldwho wasassassinated after his first sixmonths in office.
Juxtaposed to their stories is the odd tale of Garfieldsassassin, the demented Charles Julius Guiteau, who was connected to all of them inextraordinary, surprising ways.
Against a vivid backdrop of ambition, hucksterism,epidemics, and spectacle,the books interwoven stories fuse togetherin the climactic murder of President Garfield in 1881at the same time as theOneida Community collapsed.
Colorful and compelling,An AssassininUtopiais a page-turning odyssey through Americas nineteenth-centurycultural and political landscape.